Swimmer admits to breaking the rules during gold-medal performance in London

[RockaFowler]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/blog=olympic-talk/post/swimmer-admits-to-breaking-the-rules-during-gold-medal-performance-in-london.html

Everybody cheats is his excuse . . .

[seabeyond]

1. what a little cheat. that will taint it and the record....

“If you’re not doing it, you’re falling behind,” Van der Burgh told the paper. “It’s not obviously - shall we say - the moral thing to do, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my personal performance and four years of hard work for someone that is willing to do it and get away with it.

“‘It was really awesome, because nobody attempted it,” van der Burgh said. “Everybody came up clean and we all had peace of mind that nobody was going to try.”

[Scuba]

2. If it can't be monitored, why is it against the rules? It sounds like the "Berkoff Breakout" ...

... which David Berkoff used. Not sure when/why this was made against the rules.



http://www.active.com/swimming/Articles/Perfect_Your_Underwater_Backstroke_Breakout.htm

In days of old, backstrokers pushed off the blocks and surfaced almost immediately.

Then along came David Berkoff, a backstroker at Harvard University, who pushed off the blocks and stayed underwater for a really long time. In a tightly streamlined position, doing rapid dolphin kicks, Berkoff stayed underwater so long he broke the world record in the 100-meter backstroke.

In 1988 alone, Berkoff broke the world record three times. His underwater blast-off changed the face of backstroke. No one could afford to surface immediately anymore.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. It reminds me of my principle in junior high school

He was one of those school administrators for whom everybody had nothing but contempt.

He would get on the PA now and then to remind us that it was against the school rules to smoke, and, since the school was responsible for the welfare of its students from the time they left home in the morning to the time they arrived home in the afternoon, that included that smoking was prohibited during those times as well. In no uncertain terms he let us know that.

Yeah, right. Every afternoon I would get on the bus to the edge of the school district where I lived, sit in the back and inhale second hand smoke. Whether one was a 14-year-old smoker or not, we all joined in mocking the moron.

[joeybee12]

3. I'm kind of torn...on the one hand, it sounds like the steorids excuse...

Everyone's doing it and the only way you can compete.

That said, on the other hand, the guy is probably right, everyone is doing it...hopefully this will make it so the technology that is available will be used going forward.

[JonLP24]

5. It's a classic prisoner's dilemma n/t