The FINA Technical Swimming Committee approved several rule changes on Wednesday, but a recommended proposal that would have allowed backstrokers to fully submerge on their finishes was withdrawn.
“During the last stroke immediately prior to the finish the swimmer may be totally submerged,” the proposed rule change SW6.5 said.
FINA Technical Swimming Committee chairperson Craig Hunter said the group rescinded its recommendation because the wording was too unclear.
“This proposal is being withdrawn as we do not believe the precision of the wording is sufficient and therefore it may cause confusion,” Hunter said.
“Our main concern in relation to that — obviously we have approved that already — we want to make sure that when the rule is drafted and published, that it’s clear and can be fairly judged all over the world, and not just at FINA World Championships where there are underwater cameras,” he added. “It’s important that all our rules have universal application, and that’s why at this time we believe that it’s not appropriate for us to submit that for approval to this Congress.”
The issue of submerged backstroke finishes took center stage at the recent World Championships. Justin Ress was disqualified for a submerged finish after winning gold in the 50 back, but his DQ was overturned after the medal ceremony.
Hunter said they are trying to finalize the rule change regarding backstroke finishes before the next FINA Congress.
“We’d like to resolve this particular rule change sooner, and once we agree on an appropriate form of words, we will be discussing with the FINA Bureau and our legal team to see how that can best be implemented,” Hunter said.
Submerged finishes have never been expressly allowed by FINA, but a tweak in wording about a decade ago created a new emphasis for officials to call them out.
Among the rule changes that will officially take effect Jan. 1 is the removal of a phrase in the breaststroke section:
“All movements of the arms shall be simultaneous and on the same horizontal plane without alternating movement.”
“During each complete cycle, some part of the swimmer’s head must break the surface of the water. All movements of the legs shall be simultaneous and on the same horizontal plane without alternating movement.”
Another interesting proposal that was approved now allows the use of technology and automated data collection services for the sole purpose of collecting data. The Technical Committee also drafted guidelines for the officiating positions of Recorder, Video Review Supervisor, and Video Review Judge.
The full list of proposals appears briefly on screen in the video below, and a summary of the changes is available here.
The problem with the backstroke submersion rule is that the officiating mechanic makes it difficult to judge – we just don’t have judges in the best places to judge this rule. The benefit of the doubt must go to the swimmer, so if the judge is not absolutely certain that the swimmer is completely submerged prior to the touch at a particular moment, no call can be made, and at this time, we still do not make initial DQ’s using video (in contrast to say gymnastics, which makes heavy usage of video to score).
Depending on how the referee briefs the judges, the turn judge has jurisdiction from roughly the last stroke into the wall (although some referees might define… Read more »
Fantastic comment!
Was Pilato DQed due to the horizontal plane rule at last year’s Olympics? And Annie Lazor in Budapest this year?
Pilato – one of her legs was kicking vertical (flutter kick) on the first stroke after the pull out while the other did a circular kick.
I think it was a gate due to injury or weird habit compensating for a prior injury.
Whatever it was she fixed it.
Not sure why the presence/absence of under water cameras are a factor in this decision. You are effectively asking judges NOT to police whether the swimmer is submerged at touch or not. You don’t need a camera for that.
I’d hate to see the end of horizontal planes. That would be a mess.
How would eliminating the “same horizontal plane” change anything except save some nitpicking for officials and eliminating the odd DQ for a slightly asymmetrical athlete?
always interesting to see, how you apply the rules. many controversial decisions over the last few years (Peirsol, Sun Yang-2012, Ress)…
I call for video referee (not just assistant),
don’t want to clap my hands for referees at the beginning of every session….
I wish when a rule was made the intent of the rule could be expressed and we follow the intent.
The intent of the don’t go back underwater rule was to not allow someone to submerge after surfacing before 15 m. It wasn’t to penalize someone reaching for the wall in backstroke.
The intent of the breastroke rule wasn’t to allow a dolphin before the breastroke kick.
The intent of not having to touch the wall with your hand in backstroke was just that. It wasn’t to dq every little kid who had a lowsy and slow backstroke turn.
And there are several more rules like this that should follow the intent.
This….👍👏
“The intent of not having to touch the wall with your hand in backstroke was just that. It wasn’t to dq every little kid who had a lowsy and slow backstroke turn.”
This is one of the frustrating things about FINA rule interpretations — they’re written for the exploits pulled at international meets that FINA doesn’t like, and aren’t cognizant of the fact that these rules are enforced on the 8 and under C swimmers too (I was very grumpy when FINA made a mess of breaststroke and butterfly turns with the “no hand overlapping” interpretation which eventually turned into, no completely stacked hands).
While FINA and USA Swimming interpretations do kind of take intent into account, swimmer intent can’t really be judged from how they swim in a manner that provides certainty. The rule has to be judged as it’s written (of course it doesn’t help when rules get written in… Read more »
Ress….the luckiest Gold medalist in history. Should have been DQed in the heats, semis and finals.
Not that it really matters because stroke 50s are a bit of a joke anyway, but it’s true. His DQ in the heat especially was extremely obvious.
I must have missed the part where they gave him a plastic medal and monopoly prize money, cause “50s of strokes are a joke”