The Colorado High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Boys 4A State Championships on Saturday, May 19th ended in dramatic fashion when a disqualification due to a suit violation left Discovery Canyon, which was leading by 20 points going into the last event, finishing 2nd by 8 points.
According to ‘Gazette Preps’, a local paper (click here for their full article), “Discovery Canyon led 194-174 over Windsor before the final event, but the Thunder did not compete. A swimmer wore a tech suit that violated the National Federation of High School Association’s rule on the size of swimsuit logos, said Thunder coach Dave Burgess.”
Sources tell SwimSwam that the swimmer was warned after the prelims 400 free relay on Friday the 18th that his suit did not comply with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) suit restrictions on logo size, and the relay was disqualified before the start of finals on the Saturday the 19th. We’ve also been told that it was the swimmer’s 4th race of the day before he was warned and the relay was subsequently DQ’d. Dave Burgess told SwimSwam that the suit in question was a European Arena suit that can be ordered online in the US, and that it’s legal for use under all governing bodies except NFHS.
For reference, both the USA Swimming and FINA policies on logo size are that the logo may not exceed 4.65 square inches, while the NFHS policy is that a logo may not exceed 2.25 square inches.
I’m going to try and fill in gaps left in my mind by Swim Swam and the other newspaper article. I gather that the athlete competed in the suit with the illegal logo in prelims, that after swimming the 400 free relay prelims it was noted, and that because it was noted after the race the only option was disqualification. I am assuming that if the athlete competed in any other events in prelims that he or she was not disqualified because it was not observed at that time. Is that what the articles are attempting to convey?
The swimmer competed with the suit during prelims, and was warned that his suit was not regulation and he could not continue to wear it after the relay had concluded. Then, before the finals session began, in other words the period of time between the prelims and finals sessions, the relay was disqualified.
I used to hate that rule in high school swimming. We had to scribble out logos on caps and goggle straps if there was more than one or it was above a certain size. As someone that swam both club and varsity concurrently under the same team colors, I was always nervous I’d grab the wrong black suit, cap, or goggles on varsity race days and unknowingly get DQed. I get it, no advertising on kids, but I still hated it.
This happened 2 years ago in Southern California CIF finals. A swimmer was told before her finals heat that her suit was illegal, due to the logo, yet she was allowed to swim, but then DQ’d for a suit violation after the race. This prevented an alternate from swimming who could have scored points. Never understood the logic of this decision. That swimmer went on to swim in other finals with the logo covered up.
Illogical!
That’s on the coach
Gazette Preps just posted an update on the story with additional details.
http://gazettepreps.com/article/1626674
Very sad indeed, when a vague rarely enforced rule, just happens to crop up when another team calculates the final score and bingo… What is the lesson we are trying to teach our youth? I know this sounds like sour grapes, but it was truly unfair when our team dominated until the final minute! 1/4 an inch, really??
What did this suit look like? As a coach why didn’t he or she stop this swimmer from the get go or if they didn’t know the rule and found out the hard way stop them at finals now you just put 3 other swimmers at risk of a DQ.
At PIAA States this year, I was warned about my suit(Mizuno) breaking this suit violation, but what they did was allow me to wear it as long as I covered it up. It pained me to mark up my new suit with a sharpie, but it was the rules.
Maybe they should have done something like that. Give the swimmer an option to fix it. It would be hard to race if that was the only tech suit you brought to the meet and you couldn’t use it.
hahaha im reading this and realizing i was the kid with the mizuno next to you when you had to sharpie… BS rule and terrible officials… they didnt make me sharpie over mine and the meet director claimed i had “the correct suit” when in fact we wore the same model.