FINA admitted today that there were entry time mistakes in its Olympic entry lists, but says those mistakes had no impact on the Olympic competition.
British newspaper The Guardian reported on Wednesday that 17 athletes were entered under incorrect times based on FINA’s entry lists. Those 17 athletes reportedly came from 16 countries and were all selected under FINA’s Universality rules.
Now The Associated Press reports that FINA has confirmed and commented on the mistakes:
FINA said the Olympic competition was not affected by the botched times, but there were renewed questions about the murky way that swimming is governed and organized.
“For us, there is no question over the eligibility of the swimmers to compete, and we have even gone slightly over the 900-swimmer quota,” FINA said in a statement early Friday. “The mistakes, if any, did not have any impact whatsoever to the outcome of the competition and to the athletes’ participation.”
FINA did change the qualifying times for several dozen swimmers, as well as some relay times for major teams such as Italy and Hungary. The times determine heats and lane assignments during the preliminaries.
We contacted FINA for comment on Wednesday morning and have still not been given a reply.
The exact details of the entry time errors are not yet known, though the Associated Press reports that one corrected error involved Kuwait’s Faye Husain, who is swimming independently of her suspended national Olympic committee. Husain was apparently entered with no time and was set to swim in the first heat of the 50 free despite going 27.63 at Worlds last summer. After what her coach calls “a very long trek to get it right” (per the AP), Husain’s entry time was updated, pushing her from the first heat to the 5th heat of this morning’s prelims.
BS! it may not change who wins but those athletes who earned their spots at these games but were unable to compete. For the majority of athletes the olympics isn’t about winning medals or even making a final it’s about the experience and FINA making these mistakes has stolen these experiences from would be Olympians.
Could not agree more. Coming from someone who experienced missing out in this fashion…
Uh. No they haven’t. All of the individual athletes were chosen via universality. FINA doesn’t pick those athletes, the individual federations do. This was about seeding only, not about selection.