One of the top American breaststroke specialists, Cody Miller, was the only swimmer at the Orland Pro Series this evening to crack a minute in the 100 breaststroke. Miller’s time of 59.94 would have placed him tied for 7th in the world this year, and is less than half a second off his best time.
However, 20 seconds after Miller touched the wall, and before any of the competitors had a chance to exit the pool, the meet announcer informed the crowd that there had been a disqualification in the race. Specifically, the swimmer in lane four — Miller — had been disqualified for “multiple dolphin kicks.”
The race video shows that the disqualification came during the pullout after the turn, as the official in Miller’s lane raised her hand to signal a disqualification even before Miller’s head broke the surface during that pullout. USA Swimming confirmed in an e-mail that Miller was disqualified for taking too many dolphin kicks off the turn.
Breaststroke tends to be the stroke that draws the most disqualifications, and arguments and accusations about the number and nature of dolphin kicks have been a feature of discussion about the stroke for at least a decade now.
However, Miller, more than any other top-level USA breaststroker, has been the target of criticism that his stroke is frequently illegal. Tonight marks the second time he has drawn a dolphin-kick related disqualification at a fairly major meet. At the 2013 NCAA championships, he was disqualified from the A-Final of the 100 breast due to a “downward butterfly kick.”
Miller was part of a group of three breaststrokers, that also included Kevin Cordes and Nic Fink, who represented the United States the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, and those three look to be among the favorites to make the US Olympic team roster this summer.
How ya like them apples!!!
Haters always gonna hate.
Proud of you Cody!!!
This is no different than Katinka Hosszu taking 2 butterfly kicks off of the wall during her pullout of breaststroke in the 400 IM at short course World Championships. We can be outraged all we want, but in the white water after a start and if there’s glare on the water, the officials can’t see anything. Swimmers have taken advantage of it and they will continue to do it. Cameron van der Burgh did it, and so did Kitajima. Until underwater video is permitted instead of officials, this is where we are folks. Not every official is going to agree that a downward movement of the feet at the end of the kick in breaststroke is illegal. I am an… Read more »
People Cody has a family, he has coaches, he has friends, he is a human being. Let the officials do there jobs, let the coaches make the fixes, let Cody make his fixes. His friends and family will be there for him. You that judge him and hate him or hate the fact that his swim is DQ able is just wrong. It’s the officials job to make this call. It is not your job to splash this media with hate. He is a person a human being he doesn’t deserve this from people in our sport. I label this as Karma because those of you that forget he is human, forget he has feelings and that he has coaches,… Read more »
“He is a person a human being he doesn’t deserve this from people in our sport.” -Karma
Someone who cheats doesn’t “deserve” to be a part of the sport. I guess you could say Cody finally got his karma.
Let me remind you that doing extra dolphin kicks is not accidental. It’s completely intentional. If you don’t know that then you know very little about the sport.
I know that pushing the limits of the rules part of all sports to gain an advantage. Swimming has always pushed the limits of the rules that is why the rules have changed over the years. Perhaps you don’t know much about the sport.
“Pushing the limits” doesn’t equal cheating. An example of pushing the limits is Ryan Lochte kicking on his back for 200 IM. It was never stated that this was illegal at the time, so Lochte took full advantage of this and pushed the limits of the rules. Cody Miller is NOT pushing the limits of the rules. He’s cheating. This isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact. The rules state you can only take ONE DOLPHIN KICK. Cody Miller took multiple. At the level he’s at there’s NO WAY he doesn’t know that this is a rule. And let’s also remember that it’s not like he just takes multiple dolphin kicks on accident. That doesn’t happen. If it does, Cody Miller,… Read more »
Great stuff Jake/ IU Swimmer that feels their is a campaign against IU Breaststrokers get him a box of tissues. Miller is WELL aware what he is doing is illegal and cheating. He is a great breaststroker & he doesn’t need to cheat Mr IU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANY_obtQdW8
Jake tell the IU swimmer look at this video nice butterfly kick after the breaststroke kick
This guy is really well known for illegal breaststroke among those who have swam with or against him. Also he’s just pretty abrasive in general. Glad he got caught.
There has been so many great breaststrokers who have been accused for doing illegal dolphin kicks. The first one being Kitajima during the ’04 olympics when the dolphin kick has still been illegal. (I’m not 100% sure, but that’s what the commentator said) Also, Van Der Burgh who won the 100 breast in the 2012 olympics admitted to using several dolphin kicks during the race.
Honestly, as a breaststroker myself, this just disappoints me. Although I understand that it takes a lot more to win it is unfair to those who lose because they played fair.
All in all, I think that FINA should consider removing the dolphin kick altogether.
Not possible to see anything from the camera angle on the video.
I’m sure I saw lane 5 spitting into the pool at 1:03. Disgusting!
There’s a guy Andrew Wilson who did NOT get DQed yesterday and swam a 59.91 at the Texas meet.
Any video of this?