Breaststroke officials apparently liberated from actually officiating!

Wow. I occasionally check out the Collegeswimming.com website, because you know, I'm not just in it for the pretty pictures, I like to read and stuff too. So anyway, they have a thread about Greek Breaststroke Champion Romanos Alyfantis and I have to say, this video just FLOORS me. Mrs. H, you'll want to take a drink and sit down before watching...



The shocking part isn't that he is dolphin kicking on every single stroke but that not a single official called it and he won! And the absurdity doesn't stop there. A Slovenian swimmer (Emil Tahirovic) and his coach point it out to the officials and get no where, so the Slovenian goes and swims the same illegal stroke in another event, breaking the Slovenian record in the 50 Breaststroke (later having it annulled) just to make a point. Now UNESCO is awarding the Slovenian the Fair Play award for his efforts to expose cheating. Craig Lord at SwimNews has more about it here and here.

So who is most at fault here? The Greek swimmer? His coach? Or the officials who are supposed to be protecting the integrity of the competition and the athletes participating? Throw those officials in swim JAIL!

ETA: John Lohn has something up at Swimming World now as well. Read it here...