As if the controversy of taped fingers and positive doping tests weren’t enough on Thursday at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, the officials threw one more hat into the ring by disqualifying the swimmers that touched 1st in both the men’s and women’s 400 IMs.
In the men’s race, that was Brazilian Thiago Pereira, the most medaled swimmer in the history of the Pan Am Games, who originally touched in 4:14.08. That bumped his teammate Brandonn Almeida up into gold medal position.
In the women’s 400 IM just before that, though, was an even more heart-breaking disqualification for the home crowd, after 17-year old Emily Overholt was disqualified for a non-simultaneous touch on her breaststroke to freestyle turn.
Overholt touched in 4:35.33, which was to be a new Pan Am Games Record. Her disqualification was being appealed by Swimming Canada, who asked the officials to inspect the replay. Replays can be used under FINA rules to overturn disqualifications, but not to call them.
After her win and disqualification, “Emily Overholt” was trending nationally on Twitter in Canada.
Pereira and Overholt swam in different lanes, which means their disqualifications on a turn were likely called by different officials.
As the touch pads decide races by 1/100 of a Sec , you can be sure that a slo-mo camera will show that 19 out of 20 touches are not simultaneous, how could they be?
This is terrible and the judges should be thrown out it is clear they both touched and the judge should be ashamed.
jim – I’m wondering if it’s being reported somewhere that they were DQ’ed for not two-hand touching, but the reality is that they were both DQ’ed for not SIMULTANEOUSLY two-hand touching. There’s a very important difference.
It’s a shame that there are some dq’s in the pool, but I assure you. If the official called the infraction, the official saw the infraction clearly. That is a golden rule of stroke and turn. If you are not 100% sure, you do not call it. I’m a level 3 official and I know that. All those at the games are level 5 or FINA officials.
I looked at both races frame by frame and I’m not really sure about Emily but it looks like both hands are on wall as for the Brazilian I’m 100% sure he has both Hands on the wall. The judges should be ashamed of the themselves and should be removed from their next judging job. It pathetic that they can’t see it in super slo-mo in HD. Probably too embarrassed to admit they screwed up again!
Overholt definitely turned onto her stomach before touching the wall in her her back to breast turn. Therefore, she could have been DQed for that infraction as well. That turn definitely made a difference in the outcome of the race.
Both protests denied. Just saw a video of thiago pereira from his right where it is easily seen he touched. Video footage needs to be allowed fast. Bad calls by referees.
And I saw video that showed pretty unequivocally that he indeed touched non-simultaneously, therefore, the DQ was a correct call. This was on the ESPN Deportes feed.
Not sure why PanAms doesn’t use what USA Nationals (and Pan Pacs) uses…an actual underwater replay system set up via DVSport. All major swim meets should have this technology nowadays.
And I’ll go one further and say DQs should be allowed to be called via said video, as you can see so much more on that system than on the deck.
Can we find a link to the feed you are referring to? The only replay I’ve seen doesn’t show it that clearly.
This is so sad. The 2015 Pan American Games will be remembered for the massive number of disqualifications within 3 days of competition. So sorry to all of the swimmers mixed up in this mess. The officials are either doing a terrible job or they are doing a fantastic job. Not really sute