Friday, October 26, 2007

A new breaststroke or a new way to cheat at breaststroke?


This Lane 9 News article outs swimmer Romanos Alyfantis of using a dolphin kick throughout his breaststroke and he hasn't been DQed at all. Here is a snippet: "...The FINA rulebook clearly states that the breaststroke requires outward-turned feet leading into the kicking motion of the stroke..." [Link]

3 comments:

Trevor said...

I read that the rules were changed to allow a dolphin kick at the END of the breaststroke kick... but that guy's kick is just flagrant cheating.

Michelle said...

You might want to re-read the new breaststroke kick rule _trevr.



Alyfantis And The Rule Book
Oct 24, 2007 Craig Lord

After our article on the honour of exposing an illegal breaststroke, some readers questioned whether Romanos Alyfantis is actually breaking a rule or whether he is simply exploiting a loophole.

There only being so many hours in a day, I would urge readers keen to know the letter of various laws to buy a copy of the FINA rule book. Details of how to do so can be found on the international federation's website.

In my opinion, Alyfantis is clearly using a dolphin kick on every single stroke of his progression through the water and is not turning his feet 'outwards' during the propulsive phase as demanded by FINA rules.

Rule SW7.5: 'the feet must be turned outwards in the propulsive part of the kick. A scissors, flutter or dolphin kick is not permitted except as in SW7.4 (a single downward dolphin kick is permitted out of each turn while wholly submerged).'

So no dolphin kick at the beginning ,middle or end of each kick, only on the first pull out after the turn/dive. We agree however that what this guy does is just flagrant cheating.

Anonymous said...

Allow dolphin kick while swimming breaststrok. Make the stroke faster and easier on the knees.