Yesterday I went to a local competition and got disqualified on my 200m breaststroke. Honestly, I was extremely surprised, and when I asked the referee why, she told me that every single turn I did was “irregular”. Supposedly, I was touching the wall at a different time with each hand.
I told her that it’s not possible, I have been a breastroker all my life and this has never happened to me, I’m not stupid, I know the rules. I always touch with both hands at the same time. I admit I try to do turns really fast, and as soon as I touch with both hands I immediately start moving my left hand to turn as fast as possible. But that is allowed, I already touched with both hands at the same time. It’s not my problem you cannot see it and you don’t put any extra effort to check it in case you think I should be disqualified.
Anyways, she was rude, couldn’t convince her and I lost my chance to score a time in the 200m BS to go to the winter regional competition. I feel I’ve been unfairly disqualified by an ignorant referee. FML and all the hard I put was for nothing.
EDIT: I also want to add that during the competition, I was swimming in one of the outer lanes, so she could perfectly see how I was doing the turns.
Swimmers protesting a D.Q. directly to a stroke & turn judge is definitely taboo. Your coach should be protesting this through the referee. I’m not surprised that the judge you interacted with seemed “rude”. The chances of a D.Q. being overturned based on a swimmer telling a S. & T. judge what they did instead of what the judge saw is as close to zero as you can possibly get.
@Fife
Look, I’m not from the USA and I don’t know what are “unspoken rules” or “socially acceptable” things over there. I’m from Spain, live here and compete here. My coach couldn’t come to the competition. I went to the competition organization table and I asked if it was possible to know why I got disqualified. They told me it was completely ok to go to the head referee and ask why, so I did. And the rest you know from the post.
Of course I knew complaining was not going to change anything. But no one can stop me from speaking my mind, especially when I believe the situation is not fair and especially since I didn’t say anything rude (can’t say the same thing for the head referee).
@Gabi
Wait so you knew complaining wouldn’t be helpful, and then you decided, “Yep I’m going to do it because I want to be upset towards someone over it,” and now after posting on the Internet looking for attention, you’re getting hostile with people who are just sharing their experience with you after you asked for it?
Honestly it sounds like this situation is entirely self-inflicted and I have serious doubts you “didn’t say anything rude.”
@Quill
Wait, so you wouldn’t be upset if you lost your chance to go to the regional competition due to an unfair DQ? Maybe you are not even trying to understand my situation here but whatever.
I posted this to see if people have ever experienced something similar and if this is a common occurrence. I have practiced turns many times with my coach and he thinks there is nothing wrong with them.
Of course I believe that the referee that DQ me is ignorant, but I didn’t say anything about it, so no I was not disrespectful in any way, think what you want about that.
@Gabi
I would be upset for sure and it’s happened to me before many times. But I personally also kept my mouth shut because absolutely no good comes from arguing with the officials. Especially because officials have a long, long memory.
@Fife
This right here. If one of my swimmers ever did this I would personally bury them under the dumpster out back. Only Coaches and Judges should be interacting. Judges are way too busy during meets. Not to mention in this day and age with touchpads judges can absolutely tell if hands aren’t touching at the same time so I’m not surprised either the judge didn’t give a dip.
@Flint
Honestly, no not really. The only times I’ve ever interacted with a S&T judge have been after they’ve rotated off their allotted time and the head ref asked them to talk to me, or when they’ve voluntarily brought something to me. Judges should not be approached at any time.
The ref has a turns judge report “touched the wall at different times” and swimmer saying “no I didn’t”.
100% of the time, reported facts win. You mom comes in with video? Not going to watch that.
The only protestable thing in that situation is if there is evidence that the turns judge didn’t even look. Not protestable any more, though, the time limit is over.
And neither the swimmer nor the mom are able to file a protest (and in big teams, not all coaches), only the team lead. I’d listen to it and then ignore it.
Admitted, in the nineties, we did have an issue that most swimmers turned slow, and fast turners were initially DSQ’d because “for sure they did something wrong” in small meets, but then official training was improved. In the old days, refs could train their own judges, leading to a game of “guess the rulebook” if a rule had changed and some local traditions on interpretation of rules.
Gabi said: @Zade
So what can I do here then? Just turn real nice and slow for mentally challenged referees?
The only thing you can do is move on and make sure you’re deliberate in your turns and finish going forward. Whether you did or not last time is now irrelevant.
Gabi said: @Zade
So what can I do here then? Just turn real nice and slow for mentally challenged referees?
The ref isn’t in the wrong. Your word vs. turn judge’s observation, “fact” wins always, no matter if it is true or not. I suggest you and your coach get official training to understand how competitions are run.
If you are in doubt, review your turns with someone else than your coach. A lot of coaches have a poor understanding of the rules.
And yes, there is an artistic part in swimming. Except we don’t get points like in artistic swimming; comp swimming scale is pass/fail, and occasionally a judge makes a wrong call. Most don’t, but occasionally it happens. Sucks when it happens in a big meet. If you lost an Olympic spot, or a Worlds spot, or maybe a continental or U.S. nationals spot, maybe it might be worth suing in one of the sports-related judicial boards, but otherwise, accept the decision. It’s not nice. But keep training, there’s a spring season coming.
And yeah, I’ve seen a similar event in our age group nationals. The winner was DSQd for nonsimultaneous touch. Team lead protested. Can’t protest facts. Coach was furious at the ref. (Not me, I was chief judge of turns.) Then the coach slipped past me in the crowd and told her opinion of the turns judge directly to the judge. And that’s how the coach got told to leave the premises, and was subject to further disciplinary action. I understand that during the inquiry, it was found out that the swimmer did systematically do nonsimultaneous touches and his coach liked it “because it was fast”. Hometown judges didn’t submit observations to the ref “because that boy was such a fast and good swimmer”.
Gabi said: @Zade
So what can I do here then? Just turn real nice and slow for mentally challenged referees?
Jesus, dude. I’m kinda in favor of the officials after reading this comment. Best thing you can do? Eat a slice of humble pie and start your off-season training.
I’ve coached a few different sports but the one thing I tell all of my athletes is that we don’t argue with refs. They’re human. They’re not infallible. Human error is just part of sports.
I totally get your frustration. I’m a swimmer and a referee myself. We’re always taught to direct swimmers, parents, or coaches to the head referee if there’s an issue.
Of course, sometimes you just get unlucky and have a referee who’s unsure or makes a mistake. Unfortunately, challenging that during the competition is really tough; otherwise anyone could come and claim anything. Even a video doesn’t always help in that situation.
In Germany, there’s technically a way to file an official complaint afterward, but without solid proof or a video, you won’t get very far.
So, unfortunately, it might be best to just accept it and move on. You could also try filming yourself and look at your own turns. If it’s close, you unfortunately have to accept getting disqualified sometimes.
If you have a pro turn, the ref may have been going for her DQ badge of honour. If this was an experienced official you may need to work on your turning technique. Did this official have a long list of Breast DQs for the meet? Others here are correct that your coach should have been the one protesting the DQ.
We attended a national level meet in Wpg. Where a clearly inexperienced official kept DQing swimmers in her lane. We (several coaches and I) went to the Head Ref, had her removed, and her DQs overturned.
.