Poll: should Libby Lenton have the record

I tend to get dragged off of all the time. I'm a pretty big guy (6'4"), so I move a lot of water. When people are directly behind me, they talk about "body surfing". When I was in high school, after a long course race (1500 I think), the swimmer two lanes over thanked me for the drag. He positioned himself on the lane line, and about 10 feet back, and felt the boost. -Rick I think if she was drafting (I don't think she was) that would be called race strategy.

I have drafted in a pool with the wavebuster lane dividers. That is when the swimmer in the lane that I was drafting from was very close to the ropes and I was so close to the ropes, I was nearly pulled under the ropes and at his arm pits. Phelps was in the center of the lane and no where in the race did I see her really close to the ropes.

And my apologies for this digression to those discussing Libby Lenton’s phenomenal swim. Rob it only ads to this discussion. I thank you for your comments.

I posted this already, but there is no way there was any benefit of a draft of this race. First, as George mentioned Phelps was in the middle of the lane. Lenton was kind of in the middle, a little closer to Phelps side. 2nd, in contrast to what George said, these lane lines elimnate the possibility. Look how smooth the water is a lane over.

This just slapped me upside the head, but if the rules are so important to FINA to determine what is a world record and what isn't a world record, then why do they seem to be able to enforce the one's they want too and not others(a lot like NASCAR) If the rules are so dang important, why didn't the japanese breastroker get DQ'd after video clearly showed the fly kick? And why didn't FINA tell the swimming nations that the rule wouldn't be changed? Instead of enforcing the rule, they changed it so they didn't have to enforce it. It seems like they only enforce rules when they feel like it and not others. At the meet, a FINA official was quoted in the Aussie press, telling Swimming Australia's head person to file for ratificiation, as the FINA official did not see any reason why the record wouldn't be ratified. And just for Poolrat... :dedhorse: :dedhorse: :dedhorse: :dedhorse:

Rules are always open to interpretation by people, hence the need for lawyers, The Supreme Court, Circuit Courts of Appeals, etc. FINA is no different. There are rules that can be argued in various fashions by various people. If the rules that govern our nation are not cut and dry then I would certainly not expect the rules for something as insignificant (relatively speaking) as swimming to be either. As long as people are involved there will be conflicts.