![]() ![]() A long chain of physical and physiological events have to occur, and each component takes time: The sound of the gun has to travel to a runner’s ears, the ears translate the sound into a neurological signal, the signal has to be recognized by the nervous system, the nervous system has to send a command to start down to the muscles, the muscles take time to contract, and so on.Ī wily racer could get a jump on this process. Human beings cannot react instantaneously to a sound, says Matthieu Milloz, a biomechanics scientist at the University of Limerick in Ireland who is completing his PhD on recording race starts. ![]() But how fast can they go?Īccording to scientists, the basic idea behind the 0.1 second rule does make some sense. What would be better? Does racing, along with other sports, need greater scientific precision, a better understanding of human physiology? Or does it just need to accept that there may not be a perfect way to define, and record, a race? It’s true runners can’t react immediately. But, here, World Athletics seems to have set a limit that might actually be holding its athletes back. Competitions like track ought to reveal the limits of human abilities, to push through previously assumed boundaries. The answer could vindicate Gaither, who feels unfairly labeled as a cheater - “there was no guessing in my start,” she says emphatically - and other athletes who have been similarly disqualified for starting too quickly.īut this question also leads to bigger ones near the heart of the sport. “You’re telling me I’m penalized for something I did after the gun went off!?”īut is that… true? What is the fastest possible human reaction time to a sound? Yes: She had started after the gun went off, and was still thrown out of the race. But then he pointed to a number, lit up in red: 0.093 seconds, the amount of time it took for Gaither to start after the gun fired. When she tried to contest the call to the race official, he showed her a replay. Per the rules, Gaither was immediately disqualified. ![]() “I’ve never false-started ever in my life.” Someone had false-started, and Gaither was surprised to find out it was her. That second “bang” meant officials had stopped the race. “I heard the gun go off, and I took off,” Gaither says. The 29-year-old Bahamian sprinter crouched down into the starting blocks. In July, TyNia Gaither lined up in the second lane for one of her biggest races of the year: the semifinals of the 100-meter dash at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
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