At the U.S. Trials there was one official in every lane looking at the turns, so now that we're in Athens, how does Kitajima get away with that dolphin kick on his turn? It seemed clear to me from the above water shot, then was confirmed with the underwater. Other breaststrokers care to weigh in?
I saw the blatant dolphin kicks off the start and turn! I also saw it during the World Championships! How does he get away with it? My summer league officials would have DQ'd him for that! I'm with botterud! How could that official, watching only one lane, miss it? He clearly bent his knees! It is cheating! He should have been DQ'd. Hansen should have been first!
I'm very proud of Hansen. He seems like a great guy. I hope and pray he blasts Kitajima in the 200! Once a race is over, I don't think much can be done anyway.
Guvnah
Coaches and officials have been talking about Kitajima’s dolphin kick for years. I would bet that every official at the Olympics already knew about “the kick”, so I would expect to see him do the same thing in the 200.
Maybe the Olympics could hire our Masters officials from Long Course Nationals. They didn’t seem to have any problems with calling DQ’s. Unfortunately! … And, with apologies to tjburk and the rest of my relay for my 15.2 Meter underwater dolphin on the Medley Relay.
This was briefly discussed on a different thread. I definately saw the dolphin kick off the turn and tjburk indicated that there may have been a dolphin kick off the start too! Either it was missed altogether or the judges thought it was not egregious enough to DQ him.
Aaron Piersol and Jason Lezak made public statements that it was clearly cheating. The judges didn't really look for it, but they did after having seen it happen before. (NBC's web site has an article on it.)
It was clear even in the prelims. Kitajima did a dolphin kick, as even Rowdy Gaines pointed it out on TV coverage. So, to see Kitajima do it again in finals was just unbelievable. However, I give Hansen a lot of credit for his professional answer when he stated he now needs to focus on preparing for the 200 instead of getting caught up thinking about the controversy.
Hi Beth!!! No, once the race is over there isn't even an appeal process, because it is based on a subjective point of view. What kills me is, not only did one official miss it (the start) but then a second official (turn) missed it as well! Blind in one eye and can't see out of the other!!!!!! I can possibly excuse the one at the start because of the bubbles form the splash, but the second..... come on, which swimmer was he/she watching!!!! Sorry for ranting, but this one was too obvious!!!! And absolute KUDOS to Mr Hansen on his biting of the tongue!! Shred him in the 200!!!!
I expect the officials will be looking more closely for it now.
I also expect that we will NOT see even a hint of the dolphin kick in the 200.
And I expect Kitajima will not do as well in the 200 without the extra kick.
When you have a person judging, anything can happen. It always happens in the Olympics and there is not a thing you can do about it.
George www.swimdownhill.com
