Omega says Cavic touched first

Yeah I'll get Matt Biondi and Anthony Nesty on the line! Problem is where does it end? Why stop at .01? I believe that there exists a rule (it's too late in the p.m. for me to go look it up so I'm paraphrasing from—poor—memory) that says that electronic timing equipment can measure down to the 1/1000th of a second but that only times to 1/100th of a second will be recognized. Somebody else may have seen or read this somewhere; I can't have dreamed it (because I thought to myself "At World and Olympic level meets 'Why not?'")

It happenned to me twice. Judged first I had a slower time. Judged second I had the faster time. This was when each lane had timers, no touch pads. Lane timers are humans too (sometimes). They have different R.T.s (reaction times) to the Starter's signal and for the finish some are expecting the touch and possibly pushing the button at the moment they believe the swimmer will touch (kind of like a relay start) and some other timers might wait until your wrist bends backwards to make sure you touched. And I used to wonder :How can there be one finish judge? How can he see eight finishes almost at once?

Because these digits are insignificant. Pool tolerances aren't that tight so you might be swimming up to an inch less per length than the guy next to you. Aren't official pools certified by a surveyor to make sure there no such discrepancies? The stress is on "official" and "certified".

Maybe new Olympic tie breaking rule is in order? Any swims within .01 require an immediate re-do of the race. No warm down. Just get up on the blocks and do a swim off. First one to the finish regardless of time is the winner. That would settle everything. I like this solution a lot.

I believe that there exists a rule (it's too late in the p.m. for me to go look it up so I'm paraphrasing from—poor—memory) that says that electronic timing equipment can measure down to the 1/1000th of a second but that only times to 1/100th of a second will be recognized. Somebody else may have seen or read this somewhere; I can't have dreamed it (because I thought to myself "At World and Olympic level meets 'Why not?'") Omega has a nice 'history of timekeeping' section on their web site: www.omegawatches.com/index.php Spectators in Munich witnessed the controversy of the first and only gold medal in the pool ever to be awarded on the basis of thousandths of a second which forced a change in rules. In the 400-metre medley, Gunnar Larsson, the double European champion from Sweden, and Tim McKee (USA) stopped the clock at 4:31.98. Officials then declared Larsson the champion: 4:31.981 to 4:31.983. Days later, the FINA rulebook was changed to declare that times would only be measured to a hundredth of a second.

If you watch the Omega guy's video, about 2/3 through it be ready to hit to pause button. Cavic is on the left, Phelps on right; it's an underwater view. This will help show why there are those (including this Omega guy) who think Cavic's fingers touched first. Visual perspective with underwater is tricky but it sure looks like Cavic is there first. By the way, when we watched it the first time live I suspect every reader of the Forum thought Cavic won. It was an utter shock when they said Phelps won. I accept entirely the explanation that it takes a certain amount of pressure to activate the touch pad. Phelps won. But this video image sure "looks" like Cavic got there first. Watch it.

When you compete in any sport you agree to the rules of that sport. The use of touchpads and automated timing systems are part of the rules to determine the finish order in swimming. It is not a perfect system, but Phelps and Cavic but agreed to be bound by the decision when they entered the race.

What did the back-up timers results show? Irrelevant as the primary timing system was ruled to have been functioning properly. All parties agreed on this.

The SI photo shows Phelps touching, though. Obviously it's less clear whether Cavic is touching in the same photo. I don't think he is, but others think it looks like he is. If this was the sole evidence we had for Phelps winning I would say, no, I'm not confident that Phelps won. However, it does serve as great backup evidence to what the touchpad recorded and certainly backs up the fact that it was a very close finish. I think your Photoshop suggestion is wrong. I think the photo shows whoever the swimmer on the left is finishing before the swimmer on the right, regardless of the identity of those swimmers or any other evidence.

No it doesn't. It just means his hands were moving forward slower than Phelps' were. I base my argument that Phelps won on three major facts: 1. The pad recorded his touch .01 second before Cavic. 2. The photo series published by SI shows Phelps clearly touching the wall while Cavic appears not to be yet. Some people disagree and suggest Cavic is also touching in this photo. If so--at best--this is only evidence of a tie, not a victory for Cavic. 3. Serbia protested, but withdrew their protest after seeing the official video. It doesn't show that Cavic isn't touching already at all. If you look closely Cavic's fingers could EASILY already be touching.