While watching all the Olympic Swimming…a few questions popped into my head about how swimming compares to Track and Field.
Why aren’t there as many false starts in swimming?..in Track it seems like almost every sprint has at least one false start.
Also in Track…I know they have sensors in the starting blocks that the athletes put their feet on. This is b/c they have tried to eliminate…“jumping the gun” and so if there reaction time is too good…then it counts as a false start and they restart the race. Do they have that sensor technology in the pool on the starting blocks? Why don’t we see more athletes trying to ‘jump the gun’?
What is the penalty for getting a false start in swimming? Do they get a warning? Or are they eliminated from the race?
I am just surprised that I have basically never seen a false start in the pool…when these races are coming down to the hundredth of a second!
While watching all the Olympic Swimming…a few questions popped into my head about how swimming compares to Track and Field.
Why aren’t there as many false starts in swimming?..in Track it seems like almost every sprint has at least one false start.
Also in Track…I know they have sensors in the starting blocks that the athletes put their feet on. This is b/c they have tried to eliminate…“jumping the gun” and so if there reaction time is too good…then it counts as a false start and they restart the race. Do they have that sensor technology in the pool on the starting blocks? Why don’t we see more athletes trying to ‘jump the gun’?
What is the penalty for getting a false start in swimming? Do they get a warning? Or are they eliminated from the race?
I am just surprised that I have basically never seen a false start in the pool…when these races are coming down to the hundredth of a second!
-Ben
Automatic DQ. In track a false start is initially charged to “the field”, so you see a lot of gamesmanship false starts, especially from those that don’t have great starts. Swimming, it’s one and done.
So why is it an automatic DQ? Seems kind of harsh. But I guess it does its job since it never happens.
And why can’t a relay team jump back in the water to celebrate in an event like the 4x100? I read that one of the members of the U.S. 4x100 team the other night almost fell in the water while they were celebrating and that if he had done so, that would have resulted in a DQ. This seems particularly silly.
So why is it an automatic DQ? Seems kind of harsh. But I guess it does its job since it never happens.
And why can’t a relay team jump back in the water to celebrate in an event like the 4x100? I read that one of the members of the U.S. 4x100 team the other night almost fell in the water while they were celebrating and that if he had done so, that would have resulted in a DQ. This seems particularly silly.
Not sure where the jumping in rule came from, but that’s been around for 20+ years, it was that way when I was in HS. It didn’t used to be an automatic DQ, but it started getting silly with first one guy, then another jumping the gun. IIRC, there was a race that had like 5 or 6 false starts, but I don’t remember if it was a trials, Olympics, or what…
Its mostly about keeping meets from lasting forever. Swimming used to have the pretty much the same rule as track. Each swimmer got one false start. That led to serious abuse so the rule was changed to the first false start being charged to the field then the second time someone went, they got DQ’d. There were still alot of false starts. Aside from the competetive advantage of timing a start, there is another reason swimmers need a bit more control than runners. Swimmers like to get in the water before a race and often they are not allowed to (unlike a track athlete who can always find a place to run a bit right before a race) hence the extreme desire by many to “false start” if they were allowed to get away with it.
To keep meets running, they went to the current rule which is one and you are out. In most meets, they don’t even recall the swimmers but instead let the race go and DQ at the end.
Back in the day it used to be: first false start on entire field, second on the individual, third and your out. Too many games played IMO, and FINA (international swim fed) just said enough, and said No false starts. False start and you’re out. Very rarely does it happen anymore. As far as relays, it is to avoid potential problems with those still swimming / that have not yet finished. Not usually a huge amount of time in the oympics, but still a potential problem.
because that’s the rule. back in the day, it was 2 false starts allowed, and meets would take forever to complete. Every time there is a false start, it takes 2-3 mins to reset the swimmers. multiply that over maybe 10-15 heats of each event, with 10-15 events being run on the day, and that is a lot of wasted time.
jumping in the water rule came because folks used to do that all the time, again, slowing down the meet and also disrupting swimmers in the lane next to you. in AG swimming, it wasn’t uncommon for slower relays to be lapped by the faster ones.
So why is it an automatic DQ? Seems kind of harsh. But I guess it does its job since it never happens.
actually the Korean swimmer that won gold this year was DQ’d 4 years ago in Athens for a false start…
Yeah, they mentioned that. He was pretty young at the time (14 y/o?) so probably a huge case of the whoogley nerves…
And yes, they have sensors in the blocks so they can tell if someone false starts…they are also used to determine DQ’s for relay starts. One other reason why there maybe haven’t been any false starts is the starter is not keeping them down for very long at all…they seem to be starting almost immediately after getting set!
There is nothing worse than getting a false start…only did it once…never wanted to do it again. I think also with pretty much everyone using track starts now verses grab starts, that’s cut down on them. If i remember park false stated out of a grab start, and it was more of a losing balance thing, than going early.
I believe Thorpe false started in the 400m Aus olympic trials in 2004. The olympic committee lobbied to let him compete in the games.
I would also say that its less common in swimming since, outside of the 50, the start is a small portion of the race. The 50 roughly equates to a 200m on the track whereas a 100 free is more similar to a 400m run and there aren’t too many false starts at that length or longer on the track.
And when you’re talking a bigger invitational where you get enough entries to have 10 heats of girls 13-14 500 yard freestyle, it’s all about keeping things moving as quickly as possible.
A couple more reasons for the ‘no reentering the pool’ rule. It interferes with both other athletes still finishing the race (generating waves that could splash water in theri mouths when they breathe, generating wake that pushes against them when they might be trying to get a certain time) and also interferes with the officials’ ability to properly judge the last few strokes into the wall as well as properly judge the finish of the race. Since touch pad systems can and do fail, even in international competition (see the 2001 world championships) the head referee is still responsible for writing down the order of finish as best as they can see it, and someone jumping in like that as others finish can make it hard to record finish order properly.
It’s one of the first rules you learn as an 8& under- never re-enter the water after a race without the permission of the referee/starter. So it was pretty shocking to see the Australian women DQ in the 4x200 at Worlds in 2001 because of that. A cameraman asked them to jump back in and they did so, not seeing that the Italian team was still competing the race. (Dang, that world championship was a clusterfuck and a half)
It’s also potentially dangerous to have people jumping back in the pool, and swimmers can get really foolish in swimming pools when they are playing around (see, e.g., Nelson Diebel). Also, not all pools are 12 feet deep the whole way; my college pool was only four to five feet deep the whole way, and 15 to 20 years ago, the blocks were generally in the shallow end, not the deep end. Even if it’s not shallow, you can still jump in on someone else.
I believe Thorpe false started in the 400m Aus olympic trials in 2004. The olympic committee lobbied to let him compete in the games.
Actually, I don’t think it was lobbying, I think it was Craig Stevens who gave up his spot in the event to Thorpe which is okay since both were on the team in other events.