2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS
- Sunday June 26th-Sunday July 3rd, 2016
- Century Link Center – Omaha, Nebraska
- Friday-Sunday – Prelims – 11:00 am EDT Finals – 7:45 pm EDT
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After the disqualification and overturning of the disqualification of women’s 200 fly favorite Cammile Adams, SwimMAC Carolina, and U.S. Olympic Women’s Team head coach spoke with the media.
On Cammile Adams’ swim resulting in a disqualificaiton call that was later overturned:
Cammile had a very nice morning swim. The process is the officials on the deck, when they perceive something, they can make a call knowing that it’s going to underwater backup camera. We went down, looked into our camera with Cammile, with (National Team Director) Frank Busch and myself and the officials, and the perception was by the official that she came off the wall on her back, and the underwater camera confirms it has her toes off the wall. She was fully on her side moving toward her stomach, so thankfully we followed the process of what FINA does with the underwater cameras, and that helps protect the athletes, and this was a case where having more technology is the right thing to do. The call on the deck was overturned, so she’s good for tonight.
On Cammile’s reaction to the original call:
Cam’s the kind of person who doesn’t do anything wrong, much less a turn. Like, she is just this spot-on person, works at it every day. Every time she touches the wall, it’s with two hands. She’s on it. So she was blown away that there might have been a call made, because it’s just like, wait a minute, I do everything well. So she’s – I think the problem we get in here is that when the swimmers are coming through the rotation on a turn, all butterfliers who touch the wall drop the shoulder to slip under the water and then push off. So once you’re under the water, it’s hard to really get a clear idea of if you’re really on your back side or stomach, and fortunately, as I said – and I wish this was in all the cases – so many young age group kids are disqualified for calls that are like, “what?” You know, why did they need to make that call? If you had video replay, there’d probably be half the calls, and half the calls would be overturned, but thankfully at this level meet, we were able to go back in the room. And give credit to the entire officials group, because everybody was very calm about this, so they, you know – Cam and myself, Cam’s dad (coach Eddie Adams), and coach Bob (Groseth) – we were the ones who were, like, a little more anxious about it. Frank BUsch helped us out with just kind of helping to make sure procedures were followed, and then sure enough, the call was put where it should be,
On disqualifications going to underwater review:
The ADQ now goes to underwater review, and it should. Because you want to give the benefit to the athlete. Whether the kids are 8 years old, or they’re in the Olympics, benefit should always go to the athlete.
On his reaction to the call:
I was the same as Cam, like, wait, she doesn’t do things wrong. She’s precise in what she does in life and in the pool and details like that. So it’s, you know – we’ll not make it close tonight. She’ll rotate a little bit more toward her stomach tonight.
Adams also spoke briefly after the race.
On her thoughts coming out of the pool:
Yeah, I mean, obviously they took a little bit to review the tape, but when I saw it, obviously, a little bit of panic. A lot of panic. But just really thankful for the system that we have and got to go back to the head coach and just look at the underwater camera. With it being overturned, I’m obviously very thankful. I have a lot of great supporting behind me with David (Marsh) and Bob (Groseth) on my end and my dad being here as well, and then Frank Busch came down in the rom as well just to have the moral support behind me, and I think that makes a big difference. So obviously a little bit more emotional than I wanted it to be this morning, but I was really happy with the race. To wait two after not racing for two days and just kind of sitting around, I wanted to get back into the meet, and I’m really looking forward to tonight.
Post the video and let us all see what was overturned. I have to agree with Tong Wu, lowly LSC officials always give the benefit of doubt to the swimmer. Neither the coach or the swimmer should have been anywhere near the video review. Smells too much like fish.
I’d like to see the video and, while I appreciate SwimSwam’s objective reporting on this matter, I would like to hear some commentary in regards to what their opinion is, particularly since the video hasn’t been make available.
I see that self-righteousness is still the national sport.
What’s self-righteous about wanting to keep our sport clean?
When did expecting officials and rules to be respected become wrong?
When did letting the Olympic Team Coach advocate for his own athletes in officiating become okay? Could the Olympic Team Coach have undue influence on the review process?
Does every athlete (regardless of who his/her coach is) deserve the same fair, unbiased officiating?
Discuss.
What does this mean??? “the perception was by the official that she came off the wall on her back, and the underwater camera confirms it has her toes off the wall.” I don’t see how that statement clarifies anything…. “toes off the wall?”
I agree that “toes off the wall” is confusing. Here’s my guess as to what that remark meant: When I hit the wall in fly and begin reversing my forward motion to aim my body towards the other end of the pool, I’m momentarily on my back (it would be a very weird spin turn if I wasn’t) and not yet in a legal position for my push off. I cannot push off until I rotate towards my breast (front). If Camille was rotating and her chest hadn’t yet passed the vertical, it doesn’t matter, as long as her toes hadn’t reached the wall. you can’t have a push off until your toes reach the wall. Apparently, the video showed… Read more »
“Toes off the wall” means that the swimmer’s shoulders must have turned past vertical toward the breast by the time her feet leave the wall. A turn judge can’t really see a swimmer’s shoulders and feet at the same time, so the turn judge is supposed to look at the feet first and, once the feet have left the wall, then look at the shoulders. This sequence is in the swimmer’s favor because it is possible that the swimmer’s shoulders actually have not quite turned past vertical toward the breast when her feet left the wall but reached at least vertical by the time the judge’s sight has turned to her shoulders. If the sequence of the judge’s sight is… Read more »
That’s at or past vertical toward the breast. Not past vertical.
Really? You’re saying half the calls officials make are wrong. But the only call overturned was for the top seeded swimmer. Oh, that swimmer doesn’t do anything wrong. Why did we even bother having an official in that lane?
Why are the athlete and the Coach (much less the future Olympic coach) involved in the process of reviewing the tape? Is this arbitration or officiating?
And the National Team Director. I wonder if he comes down when the 67th place swimmer’s DQ is being analyzed? Oh, wait that swimmer wouldn’t have her DQ analyzed.
Is there something wrong with being more interested in swimmers he needs in Rio?
This is a trapestry! Marsh abuzing his powers again. I like Camilla as much as the next person but there is no reason to overturn an obvious DQ just because a coach (who’s swimmers are swimming terribly this week) should have that power.
A trapestry? A tapestry that’s a trap?
Where you there SHETROLLSWIM ?
I honestly cannot tell if this is a parody post because there is just oh so much wrong with it. However, the one thing that I will decide to focus on is David Marsh’s swimmers this week: Kathleen Baker qualified for Rio in 100 Backstroke; Katie Meili qualified for Rio in 100 Breastroke; Anthony Ervin putting up one of his best times of the past four years in the prelims; Ryan Lochte qualifying for Rio in 4 X 200; Cammile Adams seeded 1st in 200 butterfly. And those are just the obvious ones off the top of my head.
Considering all the talent that goes to Charlotte to train, you can hardly call these overly impressive results.
So all these lowly age-group coaches groom and train these stars for many years and Dave Marsh gets the credit? A trained monkey could put a kid on the team with that talent pool to work with before trials.
Always spelling lessons before internet comments.
And I’m pretty sure if it was an obvious DQ, the whole video review part would root that out
I am sure you meant travesty. I don’t agree. But I think that’s what you mean.
can we see video somehow?
I am very glad for Cammile Adams, but as a swimming official (albeit a lowly LSC-level) myself, I take issue with Mr. Marsh’es assertion that video replay would overturn half of the calls. All officials are taught to give the benefit of the doubt to the swimmers, and of the calls made, some are overturned by the Chief Judges or Deck Referees (who also give the benefit of the doubt to the swimmers). So I would say a much smaller fraction than half of the calls would be overturned by video replay. And, thought I doubt the competitive swimming world would ever go there, if robotic judging were one day to be used not only to check calls but also… Read more »