www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../20549.asp
Does anyone know people in the State Department to revoke his visa? In support of fellow Suburbanite Brendan Hansen(Note: There are alot of fellow Suburbanites that I don't support/have respect for.), I don't like this and I don't support Kitajima's coming to the US. Can't he go to England or something?
When foreign swimmers break the rules, FINA accommodates them. When an American swimmer comes up with a faster way to swim(ie Berkoff SDK in the 1992 100 backstroke), FINA limits how fair you can go, the 15 meter rule.
This statement is not correct. I can think of two instances that FINA changed the rules for underwater swimming and it had absolutely nothing to do with American swimmers swimming faster. The first was the 1956 Olympics and there were two Japanese swimmers (Furukawa and Yoshimura) who swam the race completely underwater and in the next FINA rules session, they outlawed it and changed the rule. In 1956, the only breaststroke event was the 200 and this may have been one of the only times in American Olympic history that the USA did not have a man or women in the top 8 final in a stroke event (***).
The other instance is the only double gold medalist besides Spitz and Phelps to win both fly events in the Olympics and his name was Dennis Pankratov. If you remember watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics he was a lot like David Berkoff in that he went almost the entire 50 meter distance underwater on the first 50 and went about 25 meters on the second 50 in the 100 fly. He also did this in the 200 fly but not as far in distance in the 200 and this helped him win double gold. He swam for the United Soviet team. FINA changed the rule after the 1996 Olympics and like backstroke limited the distance to 15 meters. No other swimmers swam like this except Misty Hyman but she did not swim in the 1996 Olympics but basically used the same strategy as Pankratov.
I believe the FINA rule change for backstroke came in either 1991 or 1992. I know at the NCAA Championships they were swimming completely underwater and both Berkoff and USMS swimmer Mike Ross (Let Race) were the ones that really perfected the style for 50 yards. In fact, Mike Ross is the only swimmer I ever saw go completely underwater for a race and come up and take one stroke at the finish. He did that for Princeton in the 200 Medley Relay in 1990 when they were the defending NCAA Champions and won from lane one.
YouTube - Princeton Swimming, Medley Relays '89 & '90
When foreign swimmers break the rules, FINA accommodates them. When an American swimmer comes up with a faster way to swim(ie Berkoff SDK in the 1992 100 backstroke), FINA limits how fair you can go, the 15 meter rule.
This statement is not correct. I can think of two instances that FINA changed the rules for underwater swimming and it had absolutely nothing to do with American swimmers swimming faster. The first was the 1956 Olympics and there were two Japanese swimmers (Furukawa and Yoshimura) who swam the race completely underwater and in the next FINA rules session, they outlawed it and changed the rule. In 1956, the only breaststroke event was the 200 and this may have been one of the only times in American Olympic history that the USA did not have a man or women in the top 8 final in a stroke event (***).
The other instance is the only double gold medalist besides Spitz and Phelps to win both fly events in the Olympics and his name was Dennis Pankratov. If you remember watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics he was a lot like David Berkoff in that he went almost the entire 50 meter distance underwater on the first 50 and went about 25 meters on the second 50 in the 100 fly. He also did this in the 200 fly but not as far in distance in the 200 and this helped him win double gold. He swam for the United Soviet team. FINA changed the rule after the 1996 Olympics and like backstroke limited the distance to 15 meters. No other swimmers swam like this except Misty Hyman but she did not swim in the 1996 Olympics but basically used the same strategy as Pankratov.
I believe the FINA rule change for backstroke came in either 1991 or 1992. I know at the NCAA Championships they were swimming completely underwater and both Berkoff and USMS swimmer Mike Ross (Let Race) were the ones that really perfected the style for 50 yards. In fact, Mike Ross is the only swimmer I ever saw go completely underwater for a race and come up and take one stroke at the finish. He did that for Princeton in the 200 Medley Relay in 1990 when they were the defending NCAA Champions and won from lane one.
YouTube - Princeton Swimming, Medley Relays '89 & '90
