Video opinion:
Video was produced after editor-in-chief Braden Keith’s reported Swimming Australia Calls McKeown’s DQ “Unjust,” and They Might Have:
In a rare move, Swimming Australia has made a public comment disputing a disqualification at the 2023 World Championships, calling the decision “unjust.”
“McKeown and Australian officials are labeling her disqualification as unjust after judges ruled a stroke violation in her transition from backstroke to breaststroke in a semi-final on Sunday night,” a press release from the governing body on Monday read, and they might have a point. And not because McKeown’s turn was illegal – it probably was, though very close. It was because Team USA swimmer Alex Walsh, the silver medalist in Monday’s final, had an illegal technique in the same turn in the lane right next to her in the semi-final – and was perhaps even more blatantly illegal early in the final.
See the full report here.
Completely disagree with your idea of getting rid of the back/breast turn. On the IM you have to complete the backstroke leg, which means that you have to touch the wall on your back. Nobody is making these swimmers do a crossover turn, if they do it illegally and get caught, that’s on them.
KISS…Keep It Simple Stupid. Do not make swimming more expensive and complicated. The rules should be clear enough to avoid any video replays and 20 people (officials) watching the screens after each heat. If not, change the rule. Why there are so many officials on deck, if it comes to the replay to decide whether the swim is cleared or not? In my final notes, (1) the rule should be clear and simple to avoid any stipulations, and (2) the human official on deck should have the final say by the end of the race. Replays for finish only. Otherwise, SwimSwam will keep us busy and amused! 🙂
Or the swimmers could just touch the wall on their back like the rules state
The rule is clear, don’t change the rules because the swimmers are breaking it
No one had a problem with the crossover turn 35 years ago. Stop being cupcakes. Do it right in practice!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F-OPR_yoOEM
I can’t even keep track of how many people in that video would’ve violated today’s rule, granted that race was a backstroke race
Actually, one of the reasons that the backstroke turn was changed from the crossover to the flip turn was *exactly* because it was difficult to consistently and accurately judge.
what it looks like to me is mckeown turned over before her arm went in the water, making it MUCH clearer to the officials. if they only review when someone calls it in real time, this isn’t that crazy🤷♂️
My question is “Did McKeown benefit from this infraction?”…or Walsh in this matter. I do not think so, and probably if you watch the turn it might even slow them down because of the prolonged turn and wrong vertical angle approaching the wall. Douglas was a bit short on the wall and she kind of did it right. So, McKeown should not be DQed. The officials on deck did not catch or visibly announce the infractions during the actual swim. It was the replay. This is a problem.
Just because there was no advantage doesn’t make it Ok. There are rules for a reason
Can’t be officiated. That why we got rid of the hand touch in backstroke years ago. Now swimmers using the same crossover turn that could not be officiated. Same turn. Yes, either must finish Back with a hand touch on your back (finish rules for each stroke govern IM) or could let them do a Backstroke flip turn and leave the wall turned past horizontal towards your front side (which will change records and meet qualifying times – but we did it when changed the backstroke turn rule way back & can do it again!)
It can be officiated. The rule for the backstroke turn was changed because too many high level swimmers were hurting their shoulders doing the crossover turn.
The DQ inconsistency is such BS. So unfair to Kaylee when others did it twice, on a worse level and then win a medal. What the!!! Get rid of the rule if you can’t police it fairly to all competitors.
Video replay takes over real officiating why? Swimming is a great sport why ruin it like the other sports. Eg. football soccer other aquatic sports tooo just to name a few. 67 pan ams in Winnipeg we started to use this just like horse racing. It was awful. Eh didn’t follow through with it on womens 100 fly Ellie daniels second in real touch second Elaine Tanner first but ET missed the touch pad 6inches wide and Ellie got the victory over Tanner. Now if we had used video It shows Tanner touching wall first as she missed touch pad. Daniels hit touch pad first but really touched second. EDaniels got gold Tanner silver. We didn’t use this electronic s… Read more »
Ooops