James Magnussen (AUS), Nathan Adrian (US), Fabien Gilot (FRA) anchor their team’s 4×100 medley relay final, 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
James Magnussen (AUS), Nathan Adrian (US), Fabien Gilot (FRA) anchor their team’s 4×100 medley relay final, 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
Men’s 4×100 medley relay final, 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
Men’s 4×100 medley relay final, 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
The French Team celebrates the men’s 4×100 medley relay victory as Matt Grevers looks on. Team USA is disqualified (DQ). 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
The French Team celebrates the men’s 4×100 medley relay victory, 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
The French Team celebrates the men’s 4×100 medley relay victory, 2013 FINA World Championships (Photo Credit: Victor Puig)
Many thanks to swimswam contributor and photo artist, Victor Puig (victorpuig.com), for capturing these swimming photos.
See all swimswam coverage of the 2013 FINA World Championships here.
@paul,
Over the line!
Is this your homework Larry?
I am proud of the men’s 4×100 medley relay team! Noone can take away the GREAT swim they had. If you look up the definition of “squander,” this team did nothing of the sort as some of the headlines are stating. Early take offs happen with the best in the world which
is what this group of men proved they can be!
Among all the relays , this one was truly fantastic ! The fault happened but we have to appreciate what’s anyway positive ! I beleive this one was faster than in London from Team Usa … or very very close .
Can someone please tell me why the DQ limit for RT is -0.03, and not 0.00? Is it to give the takeoff swimmer some leeway on his approach?
Also, it’s silly to DQ the Americans after how much they crushed the French. I could see if it was a close race how it would be necessary, but we absolutely smoked them. The 1/100th sec. difference in Cordes’ start would not have decided the relay, like it may have last year. Yes, rules are rules (and I may be a little biased on this one), but sometimes what’s set in stone and what’s right are two different things. Sure, we got DQ’d, so we techincally lost, but France certainly didn’t… Read more »
They jumped. They didn’t finish the race legally. You get DQed for that.
“This isn’t ‘Nam. There are rules.”
Exactly the same as a false start, you may win the race with 1s margin regardless of a 0.001s false start but you will be DQd anyway.
The tricky thing in relay is to evaluate properly the speed of your preceeding teamate, and it usually takes 2 swimmers to make a false start. As it happened, Grevers slowed down significantly near the wall, as witnessed by Lacourt almost cathcing up with him. You really have to maintain your speed and keep some stamina when approaching the wall to avoid false start, Grevers is the culprit as much as Cordes.
Also, if you have as much margin as team USA, there is absolutely no need to take any risk on the changeover, bad strategy. Look at the changeover of the Italian team on the 400m freestyle relay, no more than 0.03s at every changeover. They took every risk because they had to and weren’t that far from the podium.
But the US medley team needed not take that much risk, you know the rules and you have to play them.
C Martin – this is one that will never, ever be changed. I could name a dozen reasons, but among them would be that it would cheapen records – go after all the .02 exchanges you want, because so long as you win by a lot, you’ll still get gold!
At some point, we have to recognize that swimming is a ‘sport’ and in sports, the best team loses sometimes, and that make the other guys the best team. It is what it is.
Along with what everyone else said, USA is walking away with what 13 golds? 4 relay wins. They get legitimately DQed by a long established (good) rule that exists in many sports and you are actually complaining and claiming “France certainly didn’t win.” Horrible sportsmanship!
What’s up with Cordes? Loaded with talent, but has been folding when the bright lights come on. Maybe these tough times will help him in the future.
To be fair, 1st time on international stage, 1st time on an international relay, only 19. Its a different ball game altogether.