3 ms·

If a races are decided by such small amounts, like lane 1 being a millimeter ahead than lane 2, then the lanes have to be the same down to a millimeter for it t

If a races are decided by such small amounts, like lane 1 being a millimeter ahead than lane 2, then the lanes have to be the same down to a millimeter for it to be a fair race. I wonder if timing will outpace feasible construction before long and we’ll have to say, “lane 1 finished a zillionth of a second ahead, but that makes it a tie because we can’t tell if they started a zillionth of a meter closer.”

ajdude 2y ago
I'm reminded of this Futurama clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MohK5FHEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MohK5FHEY
2muchcoffeeman 2y ago
Agree. There needs to be a rule about the smallest increment you can win by. Maybe 1/100 of a second.
Dylan16807 2y ago
Randomly picking out of everyone that finished in the same millisecond is plenty fair.
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  If two contestants are that close they can both have a gold medal. Ties are a perfectly acceptable outcome.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    That is also fair. I think both are fair enough in this rare situation. Whether or not the finish is this close is already luck-based even when two people have equal skill.
  - userbinator 2y ago
    Or have them race again (and again, and again...) until one comes out ahead, like how ties are broken in other sports too.
- dyauspitr 2y ago
  Why randomly pick? Give them both gold medals.
dredmorbius 2y ago
That's already the case in swimming, as I commented a few days ago. It's not possible to build swimming pools to tolerances such that timing to 1/1,000th of a second would be fair (that is, based on athletic performance rather than distance traveled), so swimming events are only judged to the nearest 1/100th of a second. Finishers within the same 1/100th are considered to have tied. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128437> <https://olympstats.com/2014/02/12/timing-accuracy-at-the-olympic-games/ https://olympstats.com/2014/02/12/timing-accuracy-at-the-oly...> FINA standards: <https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/02/08/77c3058d-b549-4543-8524-ad51a857864e/210805-Facilities-Rules_clean.pdf https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/02/08/77c3058d...> (PDF).
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 2y ago
  I know it’s vanishingly rare, but in the hypothetical where one swimmer finishes at X.004 and another finishes at X.005, does that mean they will get scored as X.00 and X.01 and not tie despite being only 1/1000th of a second different? I know for normal meets that’s what would happen, but didn’t find an answer in the FINA standards doc for the olympics/world championships.
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    My read is that any finish within the same 0.01 second is a tie, but a hypothetical finish of, say, 40s.009 and 40s.011 would be ranked 1st and 2nd respectively, despite being only 0.002s different. The docs I've linked aren't fully clear on this and I've not found official rules.

ajdude 2y ago

I'm reminded of this Futurama clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MohK5FHEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MohK5FHEY

2muchcoffeeman 2y ago

Agree. There needs to be a rule about the smallest increment you can win by. Maybe 1/100 of a second.

Dylan16807 2y ago

Randomly picking out of everyone that finished in the same millisecond is plenty fair.

anigbrowl 2y ago
If two contestants are that close they can both have a gold medal. Ties are a perfectly acceptable outcome.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  That is also fair. I think both are fair enough in this rare situation. Whether or not the finish is this close is already luck-based even when two people have equal skill.
- userbinator 2y ago
  Or have them race again (and again, and again...) until one comes out ahead, like how ties are broken in other sports too.
dyauspitr 2y ago
Why randomly pick? Give them both gold medals.

dredmorbius 2y ago

That's already the case in swimming, as I commented a few days ago. It's not possible to build swimming pools to tolerances such that timing to 1/1,000th of a second would be fair (that is, based on athletic performance rather than distance traveled), so swimming events are only judged to the nearest 1/100th of a second. Finishers within the same 1/100th are considered to have tied. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41128437> <https://olympstats.com/2014/02/12/timing-accuracy-at-the-olympic-games/ https://olympstats.com/2014/02/12/timing-accuracy-at-the-oly...> FINA standards: <https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/02/08/77c3058d-b549-4543-8524-ad51a857864e/210805-Facilities-Rules_clean.pdf https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/02/08/77c3058d...> (PDF).

6gvONxR4sf7o 2y ago
I know it’s vanishingly rare, but in the hypothetical where one swimmer finishes at X.004 and another finishes at X.005, does that mean they will get scored as X.00 and X.01 and not tie despite being only 1/1000th of a second different? I know for normal meets that’s what would happen, but didn’t find an answer in the FINA standards doc for the olympics/world championships.
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  My read is that any finish within the same 0.01 second is a tie, but a hypothetical finish of, say, 40s.009 and 40s.011 would be ranked 1st and 2nd respectively, despite being only 0.002s different. The docs I've linked aren't fully clear on this and I've not found official rules.