The Lithuanian Federation says it protested the disqualification of would-be world champ Danas Rapsys, and is critical of the appeal process, saying no specific rule violation was referenced.
Rapsys was disqualified after finishing first in the men’s 200 free earlier this week. Lithuanian swimming federation president Emilis Vaitkaitis says the federation lodged an official protest with FINA after the disqualification was announced. Vaitkaitis says FINA rejected the appeal but has still not cited the exact rule that Rapsys violated.
A letter from the Lithuanian federation says that before the protest was submitted, referee Carol Zaleski told the federation that a protest was a waste of money. The Lithuanian federation writes that Zaleski’s response “presupposes prejudice that protest will not be dealt in proper way with negative preconception in advance.”
The federation did decide to move forward with the protest, citing crowd noise as a mitigating factor, and including a 500 Swiss Franc ($500) deposit, shown below. The protest was lodged on Tuesday night, after the session with the final of the men’s 200 free:
But the federation says that 15 minutes later, the officials delivered a hand-written response standing by their DQ, but not written on any official FINA form, but rather a blank sheet of paper (shown below). The federation asked the officials to fill out the proper form, at which point the federation says Zaleski angrily said that “there is no time for rewriting,” and merely signed a blank FINA form. The federation claims this constitutes “falsification of documents.”
The federation also says no specific swimming rule is cited, “which makes us think that not any exact rule was broken.” The officials said that there was no crowd noise present, but the federation says it has video of the race that shows “excessive noise from the crowd.” We’ve asked the federation to see that video, but have not yet received a response.
The Lithuanian federation then appealed the decision to FINA. It says the appeal process took place on Wednesday at 9:30. Vaitkaitis, Rapsys and Rapsys’ coach participated, stating their concerns. They were then asked to leave the room, and after 40 minutes, the FINA president returned to inform them that the referees’ decision had been upheld by an anonymous vote. The federation also claims that there were no television screens in the room where the Jury of Appeals was held, and so they don’t believe that the video was actually reviewed as part of the decision making.
Vaitkaitis says the federation still has not been given a specific rule violated by Rapsys. We’ve reached out to FINA for comment about the Lithuanian federation’s complaints, but have not yet received a response.
An anonymous vote, or unanimous vote?
The 500 Euro deposit hardly seems fair. To the big sporting nations that’s literally nothing, but for some of these smaller countries could be a big barrier.
I agree in this case refund the money
So many of the reasons for a DQ in swimming make no sense. A twitch in your leg that happens 2 seconds before the gun clearly does not give you an advantage. A 1 handed breaststroke touch also does not give you an advantage. These officials have a major stick up their arses with these ticky tack DQ calls. DQ should be reserved for things that clearly give an advantage such as extra dolphin kicks or actually beginning your dive motion before the gun.
Or doing dolphin kicks on your back in the freestyle leg of the IM. Such an advantage, it’s amazing they didn’t make a rule about that until 2015.
I have seen these types of DQs at meets of all levels, from age group tournaments to world champs. He clearly moved right before the start and was rightfully disqualified. End of story.
Apparently you don’t feel like there should be rules. Movement on the block before starts and one hand breaststroke touches are not allowed. End of story.
They should have just stapled it to the formats there is not enough room on the form to write the reason
The referee indicates he was involved in the start of the race. Even though there was a separate starter his written comments seem to make it look like he was part of the starting team. So he should have excluded himself from hearing the protest due to being a party to the incident. Carole or some independent person should hear the protest. Its also quite crazy to not have a written statement from the starter included in the determination. Maybe he disagreed with Ryan but we don’t know that. You can’t give evidence on someone elses behalf thats against basic legal principles. Also the signature of Ryan appears to be the same on both pages so either he signed both… Read more »
It is not a legal courtroom
The dqed USA women’s 4*200 free team in 2001 would beg to differ. Took these fools to court and walked away with reparations and gold medals…
I am literally laughing out loud after reading this and the Lily King article comments where a commenter assured everybody that Lily King’s protest was handled with the utmost professionalism because the honorable Carol Zaleski was involved. You mean the person that refused to write on the proper form and told a swimmer and its federation to save their money and leave her alone? FINA has become such a joke.
Good to see his federation fighting for him. The DQ just gives him more fuel to fire his charge towards the big show next year
I can’t see FINA overturn this DQ and not King’s.