If I am reading this right, Swiminfo.com is reporting that Craig Stevens is indeed going to back out of the 400 and leave it up to Australia Swimming to "pick another member of the Olympic Team" to swim that race in Athens. If I am ANY other country, swimmer, the 3rd place finisher at the Trials or an organization interested in ethics, then I am raising a stink on this one!!!! Thorpe DQ'd and the Aussies are going to skirt the rule and get him in anyway. They would be relegated to the status of Ben Johnson, Rosie Ruiz, and the 60+% of MLB who are on steriods! This is FREAKIN' UNBELIEVABLE. I have no respect for any of the aforementioned and if this happens, none for Ian Thorpe and the Australian swim federation (or whatever official name they hide behind) are in that seeming, stinking pile.
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Technically he false started, but in reality he simply fell off the block. This was not the Olympics but the Olympic trials, held for the sole purpose of selecting the Olympic team. Both Thorpe and Stevens made the team, the question was which events they would swim. Stubbornly upholding Thorpe's DQ would have done a service to no one (but would have been consistent with the philosophy of the DMV as Shaky suggested).
Technically he false started, but in reality he simply fell off the block. This was not the Olympics but the Olympic trials, held for the sole purpose of selecting the Olympic team. Both Thorpe and Stevens made the team, the question was which events they would swim. Stubbornly upholding Thorpe's DQ would have done a service to no one (but would have been consistent with the philosophy of the DMV as Shaky suggested).
