HandHeartCrown wrote:
tanzbodeli wrote:
As has been said, it's a rule, but it's a
very stupid rule. Or at least, there should be some allowance for interpretation. The circumstance that occurred cannot be what the rule was intending to penalize/prevent. Shame on the judges or race organizers from not applying some reasonable judgement here.
Why? These are professional athletes. Professionals, in theory (yes, in theory) should uphold some degree of professionalism (remember, I said
in theory). Trying your hardest is what professionals should do. What reasonable judgement do you recommend in this case? The rule is clear, a contrived tie is a DQ. Had they both been red-lining when crossing the line, the rule would not have applied. But they didn't and hey, in fact, held hands, so it was.
Well, the easy way is to make it such that a "contrived tie" is not possible under the rules. Someone had to cross the line before the other person.
We all get what the rule "is". No-one is disputing the rule. The issue is that the rule seems to be stupid. They outperformed every other athlete on the course that day. They aren't assisting each other. and they're on the same team, presumably working as a team. It actually seems to have nothing to do with whether they were redlining it or not, or trying your hardest for the last 15s of the race or not. It's simply because they held hands in a "contrived tie" which seems like it would be easy enough to determine which one of the women crossed the line first, irrespective of holding hands.
Swimming Workout of the Day: Favourite Swim Sets: 2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
