(Tip of the cap to Sports Illustrated’s Nick Zaccardi for tracking the video down).
In prelims of the men’s 400 freestyle, 21-year old Thomas Fraser-Holmes teetered on the edge of the block, but ultimately took the premature plunge into the pool. Unable to control himself, he was disqualified for a false start in a moment that was undoubtedly reminiscent for most of the infamous Ian Thorpe.
Though not quite of the same stakes, at the 2004 Australian Championships and Olympic Trials in Sydney, Thorpe “overbalanced” and rolled into the pool. Despite being the defending Olympic Champion, and having held the World Record for over four-years straight at that point, and despite pressure from swimmers like the great Shane Gould, Swimming Australia denied an appeal that noise had caused the false start and left Thorpe out.
Then, despite Thorpe saying he shouldn’t feel the need to do so, Craig Stevens, the runner-up in the 400 at trials, abdicated his spot to the king, and was paid A$130,000 for rights to broadcast the announcement (showing just how big of a deal this was in Australia.) Even the Prime Minister weighed in on what he called a “tragedy.”
Thorpe, of course, would go on to win gold, but with perhaps less on the line, it’s unlikely that either race winner David McKeon, now the third-fastest Australian in history, or 17-year old runner-up Jordan Harrison will give up their spots. Fraser-Holmes came in with a best time of 4:36.36 from last year’s Trials, and was certainly within striking distance of a top-two spot with a safe start in the morning.
See the full prelims report here.
See the full finals report here.
Like in Thorpe’s situation, though, Fraser-Holmes still has many chances to medal. He’s yet to race in either the 200 free or the 400 IM, both of which are events where he finished 7th at last year’s Olympic Games.
And the TV took a break from live Football match to report a swimming false start.
Only in Australia..
“One of the most dramatic moments in the sport’s history”
Yeah! More false starts & dqs please!
Thanks for the vid, SwimSwam!
Awesome that a swimming DQ made Australian news. Only a dream here in the US. Keep in up SwimSwam!
That was kind of funny, but an unfortunate event nonetheless.
IMO – These two scenarios are similar but not the same. I believe Thorpe’s DQ actually in part led to the rule change that precludes his scenario from being called as a false start. Thorpe never became set after “take your mark”, and his imbalance led to him falling in. On the other hand, this swimmer clearly jerked and then was unable to stop, control himself or reset, and fell in. This is clearly a false start – dq.
While a little bit funny, it seems unfair. Is it really that difficult to tell the difference between an overbalance and an intentional false start to not allow one and not the other? Track allows one false start. (I mean if you were to overbalance twice, you should be out and get your head checked) If I remember right they used to allow it.
Elite track and field actually went to a swimming-style zero false start rule a few years ago, and despite Usain Bolt DQing in the 100M at the 2011 World Championships, meet managers prefer the zero tolerance approach because it really helps keep everyone on schedule instead of spending 5+ minutes trying to get a clean start off in the sprints.
IIRC, the last time swimming allowed a false start was some time in the early to mid 80s.