Polish swimmer Krzysztof Chmielewski, the 2023 World Championships silver medalist, the favorite to win gold in Doha, and a gold medal contender in Paris, was disqualified in the semifinals on Tuesday in the 200 fly for a ‘non-simultaneous touch’ on his first term. After reviewing the video, the federation acknowledged that the call appeared to be correct.
The rule describes the requirement of butterfliers and breaststrokers to touch each turn and finish end with two hands at the same time, though not necessarily on the same plane. The “simultaneous” instruction leaves some room for interpretation, as we saw during the International Swim League final in 2021, but all calls made on deck at the World Championships are reviewed by a video crew.
Chmielewski surged at the end of the race, winning his semi-final over an injured Tomoru Honda, among others, in 1:54.52. Chmielewski was the only swimmer under 1:55 in either semi-final.
Race footage available publicly didn’t show an obvious non-simultaneous touch. Sometimes this call is made if a swimmer comes into the wall lopsided, leaning into the turn before making contact, but in all three turns, Chmielewski appears to be square.
The turns are all shown from different angles, with the first including an underwater view, the second the traditional elevated poolside view, and the third a view from straight overhead. The latter two look as clean as can be seen on camera.
The first turn, where the disqualification was called, is pretty inconclusive from the television angle.
#AQUADoha2024
男子200Fly 準決勝
本多灯 1:55.20左足首をねんざしている🇯🇵Honda Tomoruが見事2位通過で決勝進出！
世界水泳福岡この種目🥈🇵🇱Krzysztof Chmielewskiが失格、本多灯に好機あり pic.twitter.com/PFIeTu1tUr— 競泳NEWS (@swimcoverage) February 13, 2024
Turn Timestamps:
- Turn 1: 0:26
- Turn 2: 57
- Turn 3: 1:25
World Aquatics as a policy doesn’t release the footage they use to make or confirm disqualification calls.
The Polish federation discussed filing a protest, but ultimately decided not to.
“Both Krzysztof and the training staff watched in detail the video presented by the World Aquatics Technical Commission after the race,” the Polish federation said on Facebook. “You can see for him a mistake for which Krzysztof was disqualified. Unfortunately, there was no reason to protest.”
Chmielewski, 19, won a European Junior Championship and World Junior Championship in 2022 and a World Championships silver medalist in summer 2023. He is in the midst of his freshman season at USC in the United States, training under a former Olympic gold medalist Lea Maurer.
His twin brother Michal Chmielewski became the 3rd seed after Krzystof’s disqualification. While Krzysztof is the more accomplished of the two internationally, Michal has show big progress in the pair’s short time in southern California.
Krzysztof Chmielewski is among the favorites for gold in the 200 fly at next year’s World Championships. Though he has three World Record holders to contend with, all enter the meet with a little bit of baggage. The long course 200 fly World Record holder Kristof Milak of Hungary was apparently not training for much of 2023, the short course World Record holder Tomoru Honda of Japan is swimming with a sprained ankle (and Chmielewski beat him at Worlds last year), and 400 IM World Record holder Leon Marchand has some big event choices to make (or maybe he doesn’t).
A-Finalists, men’s 200 fly, Doha 2024 World Championships:
- Alberto Razetti, Italy – 1:55.09
- Tomoru Honda, Japan – 1:55.20
- Michal Chmielewski, Poland – 1:55.38
- Martin Espernberger, Austria – 1:55.40
- Kregor Zirk, Estonia – 1:55.64
- Lewis Clareburt, New Zealand – 1:55.82
- Matthew Sates, South Africa – 1:55.88
- Richard Marton, Hungary – 1:56.04
change the rule to allow to touch with both hands, but not simutaneously. Problem solved.
Cal athlete swims in wrong lane = perfectly fine
Chmielewski maybe touches hands a few hundredths apart = DQ
Imagine doing 400 meters of fast butterfly in one day only to get DQ’d 👀
First turn. His left shoulder drops as he touches with the right hand, and the left hand moves off the wall so fast it’s hard to tell whether it touched at all. I’ve seen several other swimmers do the same thing without getting called, including Lochte and Marchand. Not nearly as blatant as many people’s crossover past 90 degrees on their back-to-breast turn.
How ironic that Poland gets DQ when in 2005 their female swimmer won gold in the same event in Montreal by using a one handed touch at the wall .. the irony
Oty is there, too. Handed out medals yesterday.
Video reviews have been needed for years. Things like Jędrzejczak’s touch in ’05 (at least Google her name – she was a great swimmer), Kitajima’s dolphins in ’04 and VDB’s (and many others) in ’12. All human error but we could see them so easily on the TV cams. Eventually the authorities have introduced them.
So really there’s not a lot in the irony there. The rules and technologies have been updated and as a result things get spotted.
Otylia Jedrzejzak one hand touch finish was so blatant everyone could see it. Oty was so desperate as Schipper was ahead towards finish that she used one hand touch finish to get ahead.
Jessica Schipper was unfairly denied her 100-200 fly gold double.
so you get DQ’d for this but not swimming in the wrong lane in your heat?
The referee would have to DQ 2 swimmers for something that gave them no advantage. I don’t know about the other swimmer but for Americans I believe the lanes are numbered opposite to what is usually done in the USA.
There’s been multiple lane mixups this meet. You don’t dq swimmers cause the stuff is not doing their job
Advantage is not the consideration. Swimming in the wrong lane is a DQ in HS and NCAA, but not USAS & WA.
https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2024/01/29/2b4f5bea-f965-411c-8fae-6d33bda64b%5B…%5Don-Regulations-version-1st-January-2024-_-Publishing_V3.pdf
The word “lane” occurs 180 times in the FINA/WA rules. I didn’t see any requirement to swim in the “correct” lane, just that a competitor has to finish in whichever lane they start.