This just illustrates that this specific competition has become meaningless. It might measure their auditory reaction time more than their sprinting speed.
I join millions of other people who find it enjoyable to watch. By that measure it's meaningful. In fact, more meaningful than the _vast_ majority of Olympic events which have less parity and orders of magnitude fewer viewers.
In what way is someone who still finds this event meaningful engaging in irrationality?
Every competition has factors preceding and during the moments of measured performance that are like this. You could also say that a runner’s performance is about their ability to train consistently, apply self discipline to their daily lives, perform under pressure, etc.
It seems odd to me that in the sum of all moments leading up to the start of a race, somehow reaction time would no longer be relevant.
If a runner gets distracted by the crowd, that’s just as impactful to the race but has nothing to do with their potential speed. The race is a measurement of all factors - mental and physical - and all participants are measured the same way.
