When Luke Greenbank was DQ’d in his heat of the 200 backstroke I was devastated for him. So much time spent for a young swimmer with a very good chance for a gold medal. He went only slightly past 15m underwater. Why is this a rule in swimming?

It is a rule because the underwater rule has history. Back in 1984 when Rick Carey won the 100 back at the Los Angeles Olympics, everyone was transfixed by his underwater kick.

Carey came up from his breakouts significantly ahead in every race. In both the 100m and 200m back races and then added a third gold in the medley relay. He won easy with this underwater phase.

It would seem that quite a few swimmers and coaches watched Rick Carey in 1984 because the 100m backstroke race changed completely between 1984 and 1988…it had become an underwater dolphin kick race! This new style was about dolphin kicking on your back in addition to backstroking, a very specialised kick. Dolphin kick phase was getting longer and longer. Dolphin kickers with backstroke skills emerged in the strange new backstroke world after 1984 and morphed dolphin-back swimmers; Igor Polyanski, Dachi Suzuki, Sean Murphy and especially American David Berkoff emerged. (Berkoff’s daughter is racing in Paris in backstroke!)

The world record had been broken five times in the Olympic season 1987/1988 with swimmers doing further dolphin kick phases. Igor Polyansky of Russia broke the world record three times and then twice by American Dave Berkoff at the US Olympic Trials. Canadian Sean Murphy was two hundredths off of the world record at the Canadian trials with long underwater phases. This was leading to an international showdown in Seoul.

In 1988 in Seoul Berkoff used a underwater phase to break the world record in the preliminaries, recording 54.51. It seemed Berkoff had this race sewed up having lowering the world record in his last three races. But other coaches and swimmers were watching…closely.

Daichi Suzuki, who placed 16th in both the 200back and in the 100back in 1984, was already a good backstroker but he was one of those few swimmers who had an excellent dolphin kick too! An ideal candidate for this new morphed event. He had not shown his cards yet!

In the final, Berkoff used the technique again, he was leading Japan’s Suzuki and Russia’s Polyanski by only a body length at the turn. All were using the long underwater phase now. Berkoff was a hunted swimmer, there were other swimmers capable of huge dolphin kick lengths and breath holding. They now showed their cards and extended their underwater phases.

From my spot in the stands the race looked like the four middle lanes had missed their race! People in the stands stood up to see where the swimmers were. One by one the outer lanes emerged, after each swimmer came up, a loud ooooh sounded from the stands, each time louder until Berkoff came up at 35m to a cheer! Then back under water on the turn, so the same thing happened, the outside lanes popped up and then one by one the inside lanes emerged. With 25m to go all swimmers were finally swimming backstroke.

The other swimmers in the outside lanes were not in the race, too far behind to challenge.

Berkoff was obviously a good backstroke swimmer but Polyanski and Suzuki a bit better. Both took a page out of Berkoff’s book, employing the long underwater first leg, chopping Berkoff’s advantage to one meter. They had quickly adapted, maybe even changing their race plan on the day!

Then it started to happen…Berkoff’s lead shrank. He must have felt the strain of such huge underwater segments. In backstroke you can see your competition coming on so it’s a bit of a mental game. Suzuki began to close in on a fading Berkoff. Polyanski too closed in. Then all three lunged for the touch.

Suzuki won to Japanese jubilation! He waited to play his underwater prowess until the finals and it paid off in gold! Polyanski and Berkoff, multiple world record holders now stood on the side spots on the podium.

After the 1988 Olympic Games there was a new rule for backstroke; 10m maximum of dolphin kick (extended to 15m shortly after). Then true backstroke swimmers came back to their forte. The rule was established to limit the distance underwater so that the event stayed a backstroke race and not an underwater race.

Dolphin kicking was not forgotten though, now dolphin kick is an important part of every race and has become known as the fifth stroke. Officials must stand at 15m mark and disqualify anyone going past this mark, that is why Luke Greenbank lost his chance for glory.

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