The Leaving London Series: Officiating

The only reason the notion of officiating is an issue coming out of London were the comments from South African 100BR Gold medalist Cameron van der Burgh that he used extra illegal dolphin kicks off his wall like 99% of other breaststrokers do in order to keep up, win, and break the world record.

"If you're not doing it, you're all behind." - Cameron van der Burgh

Wow.

This is a slap in the face of the on deck officials that failed to notice the infraction of van der Burgh, or his competitors in the 100BR Final.  The claims are out there that everyone is doing it, Rickard, Kitajima, Hansen, etc... Either it's time for officials to step up and be hyper-vigilant watching breaststroke pull outs or FINA needs to evolve and use better technology to officiate their races.   The call is out there for video technology to be allowed to be used for officiating.  If the technology is out there it's clear after a slap in the face like van der Burgh issued that it's time for FINA to change with the times to prevent issues like this stripping away the credibility of the officials who give their valuable time to support our sport.

Not the greatest subplot coming out of London, but something clearly needs to be done.

TOMORROW... Ye Shiwen