Articles

WRITTEN BY SHARON ROBB

August 6, 2012

In a stunning admission, Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa told the Sydney Morning Herald that he used a series of illegal dolphin kicks at the start of the men’s 100-meter breaststroke final which he won.

Van der Burgh said he robbed Aussie breaststroker Christian Sprenger of the gold medal.

“It’s got to the sort of point where if you’re not doing it, you’re falling behind or you’re giving yourself a disadvantage so everyone’s pushing the rules and pushing the boundaries, so if you’re not doing it, you’re not trying hard enough,” van der Burgh told the Herald.

He also said that “99 percent” of the swimmers are taking advantage of the rule allowing dolphin kicks by adding more at the start or implementing them where not allowed.

Video clips have also surfaced to support his claim.

“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,” he said.

Van der Burgh won the 100-meter breaststroke in a world record 58.46, one of nine world records set during the swimming in textile suits.

Van der Burgh said the cheating would stop if FINA, the sport’s international governing body, would introduce a system to allow for underwater video judging. Rules do not allow swimmers to use the dolphin kick in the breaststroke except for one dolphin kick each during the underwater pull at the start and after the turn.

Several other swimmers in the prelims and semifinals used illegal dolphin kicks according to van der Burgh.

Swimming notes

The White House announced on Monday that President Barack Obama supports a measure that would exempt U.S. Olympians from having to pay taxes on their Olympic medals. Press secretary Jay Carney said Obama would do everything to support our athletes including signing into law legislation introduced by Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio wants Americans who win medals to keep all of the prizes the U.S. Olympic Committee awards to winners. Olympians who earn gold medals receive $25,000, silver winners get $15,000 and bronze winners earn $10,000…

Ryan Lochte is taking in the sights and sounds of the Olympic Games. On Monday he took in the U.S. men’s basketball game with teammate Conor Dwyer and rapper Ludacris…The media is still following Michael Phelps, this time his personal life. Phelps and his girlfriend of five months, Megan Rossee, were spotted on the red carpet at the Speedo party this past weekend. Rossee, a 25-year-old model based in Los Angeles, accompanied Phelps to both the U.S. trials and Olympic Games.

Diving

American Troy Dumais qualified third and Brandon’s Chris Colwill was in seventh place after the preliminary round of six dives in the men’s 3-meter springboard diving at the Aquatic Centre.

Russia’s Ilya Zakharov was top qualifier with 507.65 followed by China’s He Chong with 500.90.

Dumais, who has never finished higher than sixth in the individual event, had 486.60 and Colwill had 461.35. Canadian Alexandre Despatie, who is coming back from a bad diving accident where he hit his head on the board last month, finished ninth with 458.55.

It was less than a perfect opener. Two divers scored all zeroes while two others got low scores for badly executing their dives. Even China diver Qin Kai, the leader after four rounds, dropped to 11^th when he

missed his forward 4 ½ somersaults tuck worth 3.8 degree of difficulty. He just missed landing on his stomach.

Stephen Feck of Germany landed on his back in the third round and withdrew after feeling faint. Britain’s Jack Laugher slipped off the board and missed his dive. Both earned all zeroes.

The top 18 advance into the semifinals on Tuesday.

Water Polo

At the end of preliminary round play, Croatia and Serbia are the only undefeated teams going into the quarterfinals. Croatia has five wins and Serbia has four wins and one tie.

Croatia will play the U.S. men’s team, the fourth ranked team in its group, in the first game of the quarterfinal round on Wednesday. Serbia will play Australia in another quarterfinal game. In its final group game, the U.S. lost to three-time defending champion Hungary, 11-6, and Serbia trounced Romania, 12-4.

“Serbia and Hungary are two of the best teams in the world and they made us look pretty bad in there, so we are going to have to go home and regroup and get ready for quarterfinals because that’s the only game that really matters,” said Ryan Bailey, a member of the Beijing Olympics silver medal team.

Synchronized swimming

The U.S. duet team of Mary Killman and Mariya Koroleva advanced into the diet final on Monday. The team, making their Olympic debut, scored 88.270 points to finish 11^th in the free routine and moved

into tenth in the overall standings with 176.170 points. The duo scored 87.900 points in Sunday’s technical routine. The top 12 teams advance into Tuesday’s free final. Russia’s Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina are top qualifiers with 196.800 points.

In the aquatics medals table, the U.S. continues to lead with 33 medals (16 gold, 9 silver, 8 bronze) and China is second with 16 (10 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze).

Sharon Robb can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.