Even after Wednesday night’s fiasco with the disqualification, and reinstatement, of the American silver-medal winning 800 free relay at the 2015 Pan American Games, U.S. swimmer Michael Weiss still had his fingers taped in Thursday morning’s preliminary heats of the 400 IM.
While USA Swimming has still not responded for clarification on what the appeal was and why it was successful, the implication is that the approval for the tape has since been received, either by Weiss specifically or by the Pan Ams staff.
According to FINA rules, only the FINA Sports Medicine Committee can approve “any kind of tape on the body,”
SW 10.8 No swimmer shall be permitted to use or wear any device or swimsuit that may aid his/her speed, buoyancy or endurance during a competition (such as webbed gloves, flippers, fins, power bands, or adhesive substances, etc.). Goggles may be worn. Any kind of tape on the body is not permitted unless approved by FINA Sport Medicine Committee.
While the rule doesn’t specifically allow for a meet referee or meet official to independently approve the tape, as one adept reader pointed out, it also doesn’t specify that the FINA Sports Medicine Committee most approve the tape before a race.
At any rate, Weiss swam the 400 IM with the tape, and took 2nd in his heat with a 4:17.96 to safely advance to finals. The top seed was his fellow American Max Williamson, who swam 4:17.92. There was a moment of trepidation after the race, as the in-house announcer of the meet said that “the results are not yet official,” implying a possible disqualification, but it was a Mexican swimmer who was disqualified on an unrelated infraction.
The rule states no tape. He was using tape on his fingers–he should have been disqualified–period.
The FINA rule states that any tape on the BODY must be approved in advance. In the USA Swimming rules BODY is defined: BODY — the torso, including shoulders and hips. That is to say that fingers are not part of the BODY. I don’t know how FINA defines BODY, but I am surmising that since USA Swimming rules are based on FINA that the FINA definition must be similar or the same as the USA Swimming definition.
As Braden Keith has noted, it’s the approval from the meet officials.
It’s a straight-forward rule and, frankly, the relay DQ is all on the US coaching staff. All they had to do is let the Meet Ref know that Weiss had injured himself and needed to swim with his fingers taped. I’m sure the Ref would have allowed it, there’d have been a note on the heat sheets to let the rest of the Meet Officials know and “Bob’s your uncle”.
That said, I’m glad the DQ was overturned.
Thanks as I made a mistake to not note the last sentence. The rule is pretty unclear in the first regard and with medical tape leaves some guessing as to when to ask for permission.
It is a stupid rule as written. It says “any device” without specificity, but does give examples like flippers for what can not be used, and mentions goggles as a device that can be used. So no — the rule doesn’t state that tape is not allowed or does it state that a competitor should ask for exception to use tape before or after the event.
Aren’t nose clips backstrokers wear made of rubber? I tested my pair and they float. Technically that is a micro flotation device.
Joel Lin – keep reading until the end of the rule. It literally says specifically that tape is not allowed unless there’s approval. Tape is specifically named. “Any kind of tape on the body is not permitted unless approved by FINA Sport Medicine Committee.”
I was at an 8 and Under Champs meet and the ref fussed at me for the band aid my swimmer was wearing when he stubbed his toe during warm ups.
That’s stupid!
I’ve been a session ref many, many times at lots of age group meets and have let all manner of kids swim with taped fingers and band-aids. You ran into a power tripping ref and my apologies to you on behalf of all the sane meet officials.
I will say, though, I would – and will – draw the line on that tensor tape people wear. Won’t allow kids to swim with that.
We have never talked about fingers as much as right now.
What is the next part of the body which will create such another drama?
While it doesn’t provide an advantage per say, the removal of the tape clearly would have caused him some discomfort and likely would lead to him not swimming as well. So where most argue that it didn’t make a difference anyways, take away that tape and he can’t swim the same race. Dive in with a broken or sprained finger badly and his pull is gone. Rules a rule, I think it should have been held as a dq. Could cause a precedent for future cases. What’s the point of a rule if its going to be overturned
I agree. We need more transparency as to why they were initially disqualified and then reinstated. Also, arguing that the tape could be approved after the event just doesn’t make sense. It should be already approved at the time of the race. You shouldn’t be able to retroactively approve the tape. That’s just unfair. I also agree that there is the question of unfair advantage – taping your fingers together does give a tiny advantage and as the person above me pointed out, without the tape Michael Weiss probably could not have swum the race.
@ Just Sayin
In other sports athletes are allowed to wear devices that aid them in reducing pain or discomfort due to an injury…knee braces, ankle braces, athletic tape, etc…Definitely think this rule should be amended.