Moe Johnson Running with Moe
Thoughts on the second week of the Summer Olympics
Well, I guess I have had my fix for watching the Olympics for another four years. It had some memorable moments to remember and enough exciting events to make it enjoyable to watch. The one point that stood out for me was how close some of the track running events were. Having been a timer at races back in the stone-age, where one person picked first place, another picked second, and another picked third and so on, the close finish of the Olympic 100-meter dash would have been impossible. Eight runners crossed the finish line at the same time. The difference between first and eighth place was 0.12 seconds. The first three runners had to have the time decided in thousandths of a second. I watched the race and picking first place out of a line of eight runners was impossible. Even the stop action photo made picking out first place a guess. Thinking back to the timers in the stone-age and stopwatches we used could not have timed this race. The reaction time of pushing down the button on a stopwatch cannot be done in a thousandths of a second. Technology at this level of competition is necessary.
