Not long ago, I had a swimmer DQ’d in a backstroke race for going underwater on the touch. I need to rant and complain about it.

I thought that the rule was inane and argued accordingly. To no avail. I was elucidated on ‘a decision of fact’ which I thought completely undermined any normal jurisprudence. However, since I’ve been around the block a few times I acquiesced. And also, I was told that if I wanted to dispute anything beyond the ‘decision of fact’, which can not be disputed, I should put it in writing and add a 50 Swiss Frank note’.

The rule that does not permit going under the surface on the touch, has been recently overturned by FINA and the stupidest rule is now no longer a rule! So a decision of fact… is no longer fact.

With my tongue in cheek; I’m sure the backstroke world records will drop down to freestyle records now!

Or not… because the records won’t… because diving underwater on a touch doesn’t make an unfair advantage. It is normal. It is touching the wall correctly when swimming backwards; rather than smashing your hand (or head) on the touchpad.

In fact, I had a conversation with a senior Referee, one who trained Referees, who agreed, that almost all international finalists at international events dove under water on the touch. It was simply ignored. I wondered if that was a decision of fact too.

The essence of all the rules are; the assumption of unfair advantage. This assumption keeps racing fair. The touch rule on backstroke never stood up to unfair advantage. It is rescinded because there was no unfair advantage of touching the wall while submerged.

However the world of backstroke has more very inane rules:

You must do your flip immediately after the finish of your last stroke before a turn:

It’s a bit like the movie title; Dumb and Dumber.

These backstroke rules, where a swimmer is disqualified for making themselves slower, are stupid and stupider!

To resolve the miss-timed turn a swimmer must glide and wait to be closer to the wall, then flip. So a miss-timed turn has no unfair advantage, it is a disadvantage.

Ironically my swimmer touched beautifully to win by one one hundredth. He had been practicing a good dive into the wall because I had been pontificating about the rule change. He had been trying to touch without flicking a foot into the air, taking advantage of this un-rule.

His touch was timed perfectly, he was not going to be pipped by a hundredth again, but… on the scoreboard it said DQ! Even the announcer, who was the National coach, didn’t know offhand what the DQ was for.

It wasn’t the stupid touch rule but it was the other stupidest rule in backstroke swimming, the glide into the turn rule it was deemed noncontinuous.

How can making your turn exceptionally bad a reason for disqualification? Where did these rules come from?

These backstroke rule-blunders stem from Harvard Backstroker David Berkoff. Not him personally but due to his innovations.

His innovations of underwater dolphin kicking had made him faster in backstroke by going under water with his amazing dolphin kick and going faster than swimming backstroke on the surface. This caused new rules to be created. The question was asked: is dolphin kick backstroke?

It was not. So that part of the race, the underwater part, was limited by a 15m rule.

Following the ‘88 Seoul Olympics, after Berkoff was outsmarted by his own innovations (he came second to another dolphin kicking swimmer from Japan), a rule change occurred.

Then the poor wording of this rule is what created problems.

Rules are words that then must be followed to the letter. So they require perfect legalese. Ramming a rule into the rule book requires a bit of thought; how could this rule affect other aspects of the race?

After the 1988 Olympics the 15m limit was established. The rule was; a swimmer shall surface and not resubmerge after 15m. This was not intended to include the touch but it became a rule because of the wording.

On the backstroke turn rule, if you slightly mis-count and roll over too early before the flip, a swimmer has to glide to get to the wall. It is a mistake which makes you slow, but importantly dips you underwater. You have re-submerged and it is not simultaneous with the arm pull.

Interpreting the wording then mired everyone into this inane backstroke rule.

Swimmers continue to get DQ’d for making their turn accidentally slower. Even the best swimmers can make this mistake. At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, in men’s 200m backstroke, the winning swimmer was DQ’d for this rule. He had glided into his turn. His DQ was overturned, not because he didn’t do it, but because the DQ form was written in Korean. Rules state a DQ must be written up in English. After all, you can’t protest a decision of fact.

Rant over. Thanks for being there for me.