Indian Swimmers Say University Meet Was Rigged, Protests Rage

Swimmers say that results of the All India Inter-University swim meet have been rigged and that obvious cheating has been overlooked, sparking major on-deck protests.

The meet is being hosted at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Jalandhar, India. The India Express┬аreports that touchpads are not being used at the meet, and that swimmers are complaining that results are being changed after races to favor teams from Punjab. Swimmers also allege that officials are ignoring false starts.

In the video below, an LPU swimmer says he finished 6th in the 50 fly, but was awarded second place because he was representing the host school:

And this video says it catches swimmer┬аSahil Chopra┬аperforming a blatant false start, but that Chopra was awarded first place in the event:

A meet official – who wishes to remain anonymous – confirmed to SwimSwam via a telephone call that results had been changed after the fact, with times adjusted, sometimes by upwards of 30 seconds. The anonymous official said that times were changed in the men’s 400 freestyle, adjusting Chopra’s time from something in the 4:40s to a 3:59 to give Chopra the win; however, the official also says after the protest, the results were changed again and Chopra was eventually removed from the results.

Swimmer┬аSrihari Natraj┬аtold┬аThe Indian Express┬аthat three of four swimmers on LPU’s 4×100 free relay false started. Despite that, he says, and despite the fact that Jain University finished first in 3 minutes and 32 seconds, the LPU team was awarded the win in final results with a time of 3:31.

This isn’t the first time similar allegations have been raised about the meet. Back in 2017, athletes accused host Panjab University of bending rules to give an unfair advantage to its own swimmers.

Swimmers Protest

The allegations of cheating have led to a strong outcry from athletes.┬аLikith SP, an Olympic hopeful with a FINA B cut, stood on a starting block during the meet holding a protest sign. You can see the video below. The sign read the following: тАЬI would prefer even to fail with honour than win by cheating. LetтАЩs all swim fair, say no to cheating.тАЭ

The New Indian Express┬аreports that other high-level swimmers have joined the protests, but they say they’ve received death threats for complaining about the fairness of the meet:

тАЬThis was a waste of time, energy and money,” said Nataraj in┬аThe New Indian Express. “What we saw was discouraging. When we complained, we got death threats.

More social media posts about the protests:

https://www.facebook.com/prithvi.mahesh/posts/2660512710662370

https://www.facebook.com/prithvi.mahesh/posts/2659855997394708

Video showing that Sahil Chopra, in lane 2, clearly false-starting, clearly finishing in 2nd place, but being awarded the win anyway.

SFI & Sports Minister Response

A top official with the Swimming Federation of India said that this wasn’t the first time results at this meet have been manipulated.

“This happens almost all the time every year,” said secretary general┬аChokshi Monal┬аin┬аThe Indian Express┬аstory. “But there’s nothing SFI can do because we don’t have a mandate or authority at events conducted by the university games federation.

He said the university meet’s results don’t count for national team selection or for national records, because the federation knows the meet’s results are not reliable.

Meanwhile┬аKiren Rijiju,┬аIndia’s Minister of State of the Ministroy of Youth Affairs and Sports, responded to the allegations on Twitter, saying that authorities are already in touch with All-India Inter-University officials

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blondini
2 years ago

After that debacle, how do you take Indian swimming seriously? What a way to demoralize an entire sport

SuperSwimmer 2000
4 years ago

SwimSwam all over that hot Indian swimming news.

AfterShock
4 years ago

What false start? The whistle was late.

kdswim
4 years ago

I think not having touch pads should be the least of their concerns…

DravenOP
4 years ago

Hilarious.

Kirk Nelson
4 years ago

If they produce a meet video they should use “Yakety Sax” as the soundtrack.

Devin
4 years ago

You have countries like Russia engaging in sophisticated, nearly undetectable cheating, and then you have India lmao

Sven
Reply to  Devin
4 years ago

A couple of years ago there was an Indian woman who allegedly had a male swim for her in the 50 breast and he crushed the national record (or she dropped a massive amount of time off her best…). It never got ratified because of the controversy, but I don’t think they ever got to the bottom of it (at least, SwimSwam didn’t report on a resolution.. doesn’t mean it didn’t happen). It’s still one of my favorite instances of cheating in swimming.

That said, it’s a shame these athletes had to endure such unfairness. Hopefully the system can be fixed and they can have a fair playing ground.

Sprintdude9000
Reply to  Sven
4 years ago

Yes, remember that…here’s a link to the swimswam article: https://swimswam.com/indian-swimmer-breaks-national-record-three-seconds-amid-controversy-bermuda/

(Looks like we both commented on it at the time too!) ЁЯШЕ

Corn Pop
Reply to  Sven
4 years ago

This comment is anti Trans .

NEWTOSWIMSWAM
4 years ago

Death threats against protesters of swim results?? Wow I didnтАЩt know India takes the sport of swimming so seriously!!

About Sanuj Srivastava

Sanuj Srivastava

Indian swimmer Sanuj Srivastava was born on 21 January 1996 in India. He started loving water at the age of 13 and seeing his love for water, his friends named him "Gold Fish". He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in 2016. Sanuj has тАж

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