FINA Congress Votes ‘NO’ on Underwater Cameras

In what was a wild, multi-round vote, sources tell us that the FINA Technical Congress has voted to NOT allow underwater cameras for the judgement of disqualifications at major meets.

Those who we spoke to weren’t sure even they could exactly pinpoint what happened in the vote, but after two rounds, a few switches back-and-forth between which side of the issue put one ‘yay’ and which side of the issue put one ‘nay,’ ultimately the measure failed by about a dozen votes.

Who voted which direction was unclear; Denmark were the formal proposers of the rule, so they voted yes, as did the Americans, but after that things became murky.

There have been a number of reasons bandied about as to why various parties were against the cameras. Among them were:

  • interference with broadcasters’ underwater cameras
  • costs associated with installing
  • parity across the world (can every national/international level meet afford to install such cameras?)
  • How exactly the rules should be worded/administered
  • Deciding what exactly can be reviewed

So still, we emerge from yet another FINA Technical Congress with no solution to one of the most controversial issues in swimming over the last decade: how to monitor what happens underwater, specifically with regard to the breaststroke underwater pullout. Our readers will recall that at least half of the Olympic final could be observed on camera doing more than the one allowed underwater dolphin kick off of the start.

Yesterday, FINA rejected a different proposal that would allow unlimited dolphin kicks off of the start until 15 meters.

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James
7 years ago

why don’t they just disallow the butterfly kick as it should not be part of the breaststroke, the problem then would be solved. Then we have a pure breaststroke.

Anonymous
10 years ago

Aww shucks, what a shame! That would have been great to catch all of the cheaters in the sport. However, the main problem has already hung up the suit, per say. Michael Phelps got real lucky in all of his races to not get DQ’d. On every single butterfly turn, he did too many kicks under the water! It was clearly evident that he wasn’t following the one butterfly kick per turn (Or pullout, that seems to be what you guys are calling it). There were times where he would take 6 or 7 kicks under the water before taking a breath, and no one said anything! He was a cheater and a liar, just like his murderin’ role model… Read more »

commonsense
Reply to  Anonymous
10 years ago

woahhhh there buddy you can do a million kicks in fly if you want to as long as you come up before the 15 meter line. Breaststroke your only allowed one during the pull out. Phelps has followed the rules to the letter!

Dan
10 years ago

The cost is not important, really. If some countries, pools, swimming associations, etc. can’t afford them, their swimmers will get lazy and cheat in their meets. They’ll get to a big boys meet, face UW cameras, and get DQ’d because they got used to cheating. They’ll learn their lesson quickly.

AR
10 years ago

Reason: interference with broadcasters’ underwater cameras???? Really? This is the most ridiculous reason ever. Who cares about the broadcasters! If you allow them to influence your rules whats the point of having FINA

Stop allowing cheating have officials do their jobs and stand up for your ruling.

e-squared
10 years ago

Like they say in water polo: “What happens under water stays under water.” I guess that’s now a swimming saying too.

Gmurdi
10 years ago

Are they still cheating if they don’t get caught.,

It’s their “will” to break the rules, they choose to do this, for success, fame, money.
Other who play the fair game have morals, standards, FairPlay.

Of course they are cheating, what else will they do to win?
That’s the question?

Turk
10 years ago

I am going to purposefully oversimplify this: FINA really cant afford to buy some Go Pros to donate to financially strapped national committees? You need 16-20 of them per pool, per national meet. They can set up their own WiFI to stream from the camera to a computer or iPad. 1080p resolution on a streaming feed with the ability to record it. Am I missing something about the difficulty of screwing some cameras into a pool wall at 8′ deep? Obviously this is a backyard solution, but why couldn’t it work?

SWIMGUY12345
10 years ago

This is probably the worst ruling in awhile. Could have at LEAST put them at the Olympics, world championship, or whatever international championship meet there is for the year. Agreed, cost is an issue and not every country can afford the cameras, but at the biggest meet of the year they are completely necessary. World records have been broken as a result of not having cameras (Van De Cheater). Really perplexed by this.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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