The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) will not allow swimmers to push off from flip turns on their backs in individual medley or medley relay events, mirroring FINA’s interpretation of medley rules.
THE BACKSTORY
(Skip ahead if you read yesterday’s article).
This summer, American superstar swimmer Ryan Lochte began experimenting with swimming the underwater portion of his freestyle races on his back, before turning over on his stomach just before rising to the surface.
He used the technique to win his 4th-straight long course World Championship in the 200 IM, and while that medal will stand, FINA was not to let his ingenuity go without remark. While the organization didn’t retroactively impact the result, shortly after the World Championships ended, they released a new interpretation of their own existing rule.
The interpretation, which was not an actual rule change, said that on the freestyle portions of the IM events (aka the closing leg), a swimmer being on their back would be rule a violation of the clause of the rules that forbids a swimmer from repeating a stroke in a medley event. Lochte’s new technique is still allowed in a freestyle-specific event.
Recently, USA Swimming informed one Wisconsin official that they were extending that ruling to intermediate turns on IM and medley relay events. In other words, medley relay anchors and IM’ers will now have to alter the traditional freestyle flipturn technique for those races specifically.
The NCAA took a softer stance, proclaiming the Lochte technique legal in college competition. That’s because the NCAA never changes its rules mid-season, and the next rules change year isn’t until 2017.
NFHS Interpretation
SwimSwam has been told high school swimming will mirror the FINA interpretation, leaving the NCAA as the only major arena allowing the so-called “Lochte turn.”
The University Interscholastic League in the state of Texas has informed us that the situation is already addressed in the NFHS Swimming and Diving Rule book, specifically noting that “any stroke swum on the back is considered to be backstroke.”
The exact situation in the rule book asks about elementary backstroke being used as the final quarter of an IM or medley relay race, ruling the stroke illegal in that situation because it is technically considered backstroke. By extension, pushing off underwater on the back would also be considered backstroke.
Rules Federation Stances As Of Now
To clear up any remaining confusion, here’s a run-down of what we know about the rules at each level of competition for the moment:
Are ‘Lochte Turns’ illegal?
- FINA: Illegal on the freestyle portion of IM races and medley relays
- USA Swimming: Illegal on all turns within freestyle portion of IM races and medley relays
- NCAA: Legal on all turns
- NFHS (high school): Illegal on the freestyle portion of IM races and medley relays
There are plenty of requirements for a legal backstroke race. FINA has chosen to not mention them when trying to say that being on the back is the only requirement.
If Lochte had surfaced on his back before 15M and then rolled over I would have called it backstroke also.
A simple swimmer must be making visible progress toward breast should have been sufficient.
FL LSC – there are more rules associated with backstroke than just remaining on you back throught the distance in both back and IM events. In the case of the intermediate turn of the backstroke, the same rules apply during the intermediate turn which allows the back to breast motion prior to the turn (with continuous arm motion follow by initiation of a turning motion). Upon the swimmers feet leaving the wall the swimmer must be on or towards the back. This is a hard call for an official to make unless it is an obvious violation. The positioning of an offical is critical when making this call. It is hard to make the call unless the offical is standing… Read more »
It seems to me that the NFHS might have this right. An addition to Rule 8-2-4c will read as follows: “The final leg of the
individual medley and the medley relay requires the swimmer to be at or
past vertical toward the breast before any stroke, kick or propulsive
motion.”
I read this as leave the wall in any manner but you must be toward the breast before starting the stroke.
of course in all 25 meter or yard IM races, the swimmer is on their back for LESS than 25% of the race due to flip turns, so they should be allowed a foot or more of backstroke pushoff on their freestyle leg turns in the IM or Medley Relays….. but why should FINA split hairs in a consistent manner?
hair splitter – this has been going through my head as well since this interpretation was released. But, they’ll say that the one stroke on your stomach going into the turn is considered “legal backstroke.”
True. Sort of miss the old days when you had to finish each leg on your back.
Wow. How stupid. Now they are not going by the spirit of the rule just because Lochte decided to take it to another level and Universal had to have a Lochte cam and Rowdy had to get a chub over it. That is going to cause so much confusion and unfortunately calls hurting the swimmers this year. Thanks for slowing swimming down.
Possibly the most subjective rule in swimming currently. How far away does the official need to be when calling this? Can they be 3 to 4 lanes away at the edge of the pool and make this call in a center lane? Do they need to be directly above the lane? How do they know the toes have left the wall? This is a really bad additional interpretation.
I suspect they will need to get rid of the flip turn for intermediate legs of the backstroke since being on the back is the “ONLY” requirement for backstroke.
Thanks for the simple recap at the end of your article. Even if it’s not simple.
That’s hilarious. 😆
The problem is that it’s not just the 15-meter kickout “Lochte turn” being banned — this rule bans every free turn (within IM/medley relays) where the swimmer merely pushes off the wall past vertical towards the back and quickly rotates onto the chest — just like we teach all age groupers to do.
Kids are now going to need to learn a “freestyle flip turn” and a “freestyle-during-IM flip turn.”
This is ridiculous.
I am still so confused. After following it, I also wondered if they would need to know a freestyle flip and a free-style during IM. How are we supposed to teach this and why?!