Sprinters launch their bodies faster than a reflex
To prevent cheating, Olympic officials treat any movement within a tenth of a second of the starter pistol as a physical impossibility for the human brain.
The moment an Olympic sprinter explodes from the blocks, they are performing a feat of physics that pushes the absolute boundaries of the human nervous system. In elite competition, any athlete who moves within 0.10 seconds of the starting gun is disqualified for a false start, even if they didn't actually beat the sound. This is because the signal from the ears must travel to the brain, be processed, and then send a command down the spinal cord to the muscles, a biological relay race that takes roughly 100 milliseconds to complete. Anything faster is considered an educated guess rather than a reaction.