Since so many people seem to be interested in reaction times, I thought this was worth posting:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2008/08/mens_4x100_freestyle_relay_som.html?hpid=artslot
Obviously, non-leadoff swimmers don’t get the “running start” benefit that track relay athletes do, but they do get the benefit of quicker reaction times.
Most interesting things to me were how much faster USA2 and USA4 reacted than did USA3, and how close USA2 and USA4 came to false starting (maybe they didn’t; I’m not a swimmer, but 0.04 seems pretty tight).
Also, a reaction time of 0.75 to a starting gun would be the end of the world for a track guy, I imagine, although these guys are performing over 400m track equivalents rather than 100m.
Does anyone know the reaction times for 400m runners?