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As per the article there has been a 15m underwater limit off each wall in butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke since 1998. Though the article doesn't state it
by blang 11y ago
As per the article there has been a 15m underwater limit off each wall in butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke since 1998. Though the article doesn't state it there was a 10m limit in backstroke 1988, that was relaxed to 15m in 1991.
The rule change was spurred after David Berkoff and Daichi Suzuki[1] battled in the 100 backstroke in the 88 olympics going mostly underwater on the first length[2]. Though FINA said it was for safety concerns, it was more likely that they wanted the strokes to be preserved and not have swimming boil down to a breath holding contest.
[1] http://swimswam.com/david-berkoff-daichi-suzukis-underwater-duel-88/ http://swimswam.com/david-berkoff-daichi-suzukis-underwater-...
[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztDlHwqD7pA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztDlHwqD7pA
- terrn 11y agoDid you ever see Denis Pankratov do his underwater? Back in the day he was truly unbelievable!! It's too bad there are limits on the underwater portion, the cameras they have on the pools now are really great at capturing the underwaters and I don't think much would be lost unless you're not able to watch it on screen. But on freestyle there are no limits on anything except pushing off the bottom, so if you wanted to chance it I wonder if someone could try and win the 50 fr with a fish kick?
- jeffasinger 11y agoIn freestyle some part of the swimmer must still break the surface by the 15m mark. Otherwise, people would probably go farther for shorter distance events (50 and 100).