2010 NCAAs

At NCAA's, it seems to mean "scratched." It may be similar to what is (at least locally) referred to as "refusing the blocks" in a USA-S meet. Say you have a deadline to scratch a particular event; there will be a penalty if you fail to scratch and then don't show up. But let's say you don't want to swim a particular event because you are tired, or resting for something else. If you missed the scratch deadline, you could just show up and false start on purpose, or just swim the event very slowly. Either way would delay the meet, so officials give you the option of "refusing the blocks." Essentially it means you show up and declare you don't want to swim. You get DQ'd and the DQ reads false start, but you are not penalized for a no-show. (Note: I've done this once, and they didn't require me to actually show up to the blocks...I just informed them about 15 min before the race that I intended to "refuse the blocks" and they said okay.) Anyway, I bet that's what this is at NCAAs.

At NCAA's, it seems to mean "scratched." It may be similar to what is (at least locally) referred to as "refusing the blocks" in a USA-S meet. Say you have a deadline to scratch a particular event; there will be a penalty if you fail to scratch and then don't show up. But let's say you don't want to swim a particular event because you are tired, or resting for something else. If you missed the scratch deadline, you could just show up and false start on purpose, or just swim the event very slowly. Either way would delay the meet, so officials give you the option of "refusing the blocks." Essentially it means you show up and declare you don't want to swim. You get DQ'd and the DQ reads false start, but you are not penalized for a no-show. (Note: I've done this once, and they didn't require me to actually show up to the blocks...I just informed them about 15 min before the race that I intended to "refuse the blocks" and they said okay.) Anyway, I bet that's what this is at NCAAs.