For if a female sprinter knew that the men’s values were being used, she could intentionally false start by up to 20 milliseconds without being flagged by the electronic timing mechanism. We conclude that it is important to set the force thresholds for women lower than men in order for a fair women’s competition. In our most recent paper, we argue that these Olympic reaction times have not become faster due to improved training but, instead, likely represent changes in the computer algorithm used by Swiss Timing. Women’s reaction times had gotten significantly faster with men’s times remaining consistent. But in 2012, a year after our first paper appeared, the difference between the sexes disappeared. What did you find?Īshton-Miller: Our findings showed the same difference – women showing slower reaction times than men – in 20. So I asked graduate student Payam Mirshams Shahshahani to compare reaction data from the ‘04, ‘08, ‘12, ‘16 Summer Games using a different kind of statistical analysis that could take advantage of a repeated measures analysis. We also wanted to see if Swiss Timing had continued to use the same reaction time calculation in subsequent Olympic games. So what questions did your team tackle next?Īshton-Miller: Once we knew about this bias in measuring women’s reaction times, we wanted to see if the results from the 2008 Olympics were consistent with other Olympic Games before and after. That would obviously be unfair to other women in the race. We published that suggestion in the 2011 paper hoping that it might spur Omega to make the competition more equitable for women, since with their current system a women could false start by approximately 20 milliseconds and not be caught. Then, using results from our earlier lab study which measured lower extremity reactions, we calculated that by reducing the force threshold for women at the Olympics by 21 percent, the reaction gap should disappear. They replied that information was proprietary. Once you realized what might be causing the difference in women versus men’s reaction times, what step did you take?Īshton-Miller: Prior to publishing that article, we reached out to Omega to ask what force threshold they used on their starting blocks and whether it was the same for men and women. That would mean that the sex difference in reaction time was likely an artifact. Eventually, based on our lab study, we speculated that Omega sister company Swiss Timing (the official Olympic timekeeper) must have used the same force level on the starting blocks for men and women in determining whether a false start had taken place. Our analysis showing slower reaction times by women in Beijing surprised us, but initially we accepted the finding. If the blocks register a certain level of force before 100 milliseconds has elapsed after the starting gun, it is deemed a false start. When the athlete adopts their starting position, one foot goes against each plate and, in order to accelerate forward, the athlete has to push off against these instrumented blocks. Now, both plates on the starting blocks at the Olympics are equipped with a force sensor. But if a much larger force was required to register reaction, then it took women longer than men to reach that threshold. Those data unequivocally showed that for small forces, women reacted faster than men. Photo courtesy of Getty ImagesĪshton-Miller: It happens that, as part of a previous study on the biomechanics of falls, our team measured lower extremity reaction times in a lab. Olympic reaction times have not become faster due to improved training but, instead, likely represent changes in the computer algorithm used by Swiss Timing.
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