FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee

Today, the FINA Bureau announced its Committees, Commissions and Panels for the 2009-2013 quadrennial. Benefitting from the tremendous work of FINA's past Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, which guided the sport to the Olympics and helped launch a new era of growth, the new Committee has plenty of momentum and numerous issues to address.

The new FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee Chairman is Ronnie Wong Man Chui of Hong Kong (shown above in yellow shirt), the Vice Chairman is Jorge Delgado Panchana of Ecuador (shown in red shirt), the Honorary Secretary is Flavio Bomio of Switzerland and the FINA Bureau Liaison is Dennis Miller of Fiji.

Committee members include Zouhier El Moufti of Morocco, Tomas Haces German of Cuba, Steven Munatones of the USA, Professor Khwaja Aziz of Bangladesh, Valerijus Belovas of Lithuania, Samuel Greetham of Great Britain, Andrea Prayer of Italy, Noam Zvi of Israel, John West of New Zealand, Hatem Seifallah Ibrahim of Egypt, Beltran Washington of Uruguay and Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia with Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria as the Athlete's Representative.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Thank You For Your Vision And Hard Work

Yesterday, Nory Kruchten of Luxembourg (on right), the FINA Bureau liaison of the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, chaired an opening meeting among the 41 countries that have sent their best open water swimmers to Italy for the 2009 World Swimming Championships.

Nory shared some of his thoughts over the last eight years, a period of remarkable growth in the sport:

"It has been a fantastic time, together with my fellow committee members. We reached the Olympics and we will continue making great steps in the future. We can still move forward."

"From the first FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Honolulu to the Olympic 10KM Marathon Swim, the sport has really developed."

To Nory and all the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee members, including Chairman Sid Cassidy (USA) (on left above), Vice Chairman Ronnie Wong Man Chui (Hong Kong), Honorable Secretary Shelley Taylor-Smith (Australia), Valerijus Belovas (Lithuania), Flavio Bomio (Switzerland), Alan Clarkson (Great Britain), Jorge Delgado Panchana (Ecuador), Dr. Mohie Wahid Farid (Egypt), Paulo Frischknecht (Portugal), Tomas Haces German (Cuba), Dennis Miller (Fiji) and Vladimir Srb (Czech Republic), we extend our sincerest gratitude to your vision and hard work over the years.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Deciding the Future of Elite Open Water Swimming

The FINA’s Technical Open Water Swimming Committee members are gathering in Kuwait this week to discuss and decide a variety of critical issues to better govern, judge, administer and promote the sport of open water swimming.

Their discussions and decisions will have a significant impact on FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit, the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix and the FINA World Swimming Championship events. The proposed rules changes were previously submitted by various national swimming federations and are now being considered by the Committee through careful deliberation and discussion.

The members include Chairman Sid Cassidy of the USA, Vice Chairman Ronnie Wong Man Chui of Hong Kong, Honorable Secretary Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia, Valerijus Belovas of Lithuania, Flavio Bomio of Switzerland, Alan Clarkson of Great Britain, Jorge Delgado Panchana of Ecuador, Dr. Mohie Wahid Farid of Egypt, Paulo Frischknecht of Portugal, Tomas Haces German of Cuba, Dennis Miller of Fiji and Vladimir Srb of the Czech Republic. The FINA Bureau Liaison is Nory Kruchten of Luxembourg. The Coaches' Commission Liaison is Osvaldo Arsenio of Argentina and the Athletes' Commission Liaison Daniel Kowalski of Australia.

Photo taken by Giorgio Scalia of Valerio Cleri at the 2008 European Open Water Swimming Championships in Croatia.

Rough Tactics in the Olympics

Numerous websites and blogs discussed the "dirty tactics" of the Olympic open water swimmers in Beijing after newspapers reported that Cassandra Patten of the U.K. angrily accused Germany's Angela Maurer of unsportsmanlike conduct in the frantic sprint at the end of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.

AP photo on left shows Cassandra Patten upset with fourth-place Maurer immediately after the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing.

Patten, the bronze medalist, finished only a few strokes behind Russian winner Larisa Ilchenko and fellow Brit Keri-Anne Payne after setting an unrelenting pace for 10 kilometers (a bit faster than 1 minute 12 seconds per 100 meters without the benefits of wall turns).

But Patten also claimed fourth-placed Maurer grabbed her ankles towards the end of the gruelling two-hour race. Patten said: "I was really annoyed. It's not good sportsmanship to pull on someone's feet. What is all that about?"

The race appeared to be remarkably fair and clean given the pressure on the athletes and the stakes up for grab.

The head referee, Dennis Miller of Fiji, was constantly well-positioned in the official's boat very close to the lead pack throughout the race with a great vantage point.

There were a total of five yellow cards given in the race. Fortunately, none of these yellow cards affected the ultimate outcome of the race. If there HAD BEEN a pulling back of one's ankles, either Miller or one of the two assistant referees (also well-positioned in the official's boats along the course) would have caught the infraction.

When a world-class swimmer is pulled back by her ankles, the loss of momentum is immediately and easily seen by the referees. There appeared to be little evidence of pulling back or other obvious acts of unsportsmanlike conduct. That being said, it is also obvious and widely known that the swimmers do bang into each other, frequently hitting arms and touching the feet of the swimmer inmediately in front of them.

As Payne writes in her blog, "As for [Ilchenko], she swam a great race[.] there were no pulling on legs - just annoying tapping on feet for 9.5k's but she would have had the same from the girls behind her, so it didnt bother me."

The banging, elbowing and scraping are all examples of incidental contact that is tolerated in the sport. From the athlete's perspective, a brushing against another swimmer or an interlocking of arms at the 1K mark is remarkably different than the same physical contact at the 9K mark because (1) they are physically and mentally exhausted and (2) everything is amplified during the final sprint.

Towards the end of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, Maurer could be seen trying to get around Cassandra Patten. Angela swam to her right, then to her left, then behind Ilchenko, then back behind Patten again to no avail. Patten did a great job holding her off.

It was clear that Maurer was trying to make a move, but did nothing illegal or unsportsmanlike in her tactics. Patten was not impeded in the opinions of the three referees who were only a few meters away from the action.

That being said, the gold medalist Larisa Ilchenko swam wide of Payne and Patten when she made her final move towards the end. This was a classic and clever move by the undefeated world champion. It created an area of separation that enabled Ilchenko to sprint ahead in clean water and prevented Payne and Patten from closing in on her.

At no level in open water swimming - either on the international level, the pro races or competitive domestic races - is pulling back, elbowing, punching or other forms of unsportsmanlike conduct encouraged or taught by responsible coaches. That being said, protecting oneself and incidental contact is the name of the game as can be seen by the photo to the right. This photo was taken by Javier Blazquez at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships women's 5K race just at the time the American swimmer was sandwiched between several rivals near the first buoy turn.

No Harm No Foul - Reffing the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim

Dennis Miller of Fiji will be the head referee of the women's Olympic 10K Marathon Swim. Ronnie Wong Man Chui of Hong Kong will be the head referee for the men's race.

What does a head referee do and why is the job so critical in the sport of open water swimming? Read on.





25 highly motivated, aggressive open water athletes will swim four 2.5K loops on the Olympic rowing course, fighting around 16 turn buoys, swimming in and out of feeding stations, and sprinting in a frantic rush to touch pads raised a few feet above the water.

If the race unfolds as expected, the 25 athletes will swim in a large tight pack, each close enough to not only rip the goggles right off the heads of each other, but also to snatch the gel packs from the swim suits of their rivals.

The 25 athletes have their own dreams and expectations: Dreams of Olympic gold...and expectations of getting hit, bumped, pulled, banged, elbowed, kneed, cut off, scratched, kicked, yanked and jostled throughout the race.

How do the head referees keep order in open water? How do they give fouls and give disqualifications while the athletes continue to swim?

At the Olympics, there will a head referee, two assistant referees, turn judges and feeding station judges on the floating pontoon. All officials will be in constant contact with one another via hand-held radios.

The head referee and the two assistant referees are positioned in boats along the course and work hand-in-hand with their boat drivers who navigate as closely as possible to the swimmers, without creating a wake.

The head referee positions himself close to the second and third swimmers in the lead pack and makes himself visible to everyone in the lead pack by intensely watching the swimmers for the entire 2-hour race from the bow of his boat.

The assistant referee positions himself further back in the lead pack in a separate boat, constantly watching for rule infractions. Because the first 2-3 loops of the 4-loop 10K race will probably include all 25 entrants at the Olympics in one large tightly bound pack, you will see 2 referee boats positioned only a few meters from the entire pack - the head referee towards the front, and the assistant referee towards the back.

What are the possible infractions?

Under the general unsportsmanlike rule, athletes can be disqualified for making intentional contact, obstruction or interference with another swimmer. Such unsportsmanlike conduct is judged solely by the head referee.

But with swimmers constantly bumping each other, the referee's key consideration is if the contact was intentional or not. A very high majority of the occurrences are simply unintentional instances of contact that do not require intervention by the referees and are an integral part of the sport.

On the other hand, when swimmers are swimming too aggressively, the referees quickly become pro-active and try to mitigate further escalation of inappropriate physical altercations among the swimmers.

Warning whistles and directives given by hand motions are repeatedly used by the referees. For example, when three swimmers are swimming together and the two outside swimmers start to squeeze the middle swimmer, the referee will blow his whistle and give hand signals to instruct the two outside swimmers to separate and give the middle swimmer some room. On the other hand, if swimmers lock arms while swimming stroke for stroke or run into each other during the crush around the turn buoys, the referee generally judges this contact to be unintentional.

While most physical contact among the swimmers is viewed as accidental or part of the sport, there is a subjective element that is entirely dependent upon the referee's experience and perspective.

Can athletes be disqualified?

In general, whistle warnings are given fairly frequently throughout the race - perhaps 2-4 times per loop during a relatively "clean" race and 5-10 times per loop during a more aggressive race.

At the first rule infraction when the referee judges contact to be intentional and unsportsmanlike, the head referee shows a yellow flag to the swimmer(s) with a card bearing the swimmer's number. This number is written with black markers on their shoulders, shoulder blades and back of hands for identification purposes.

On the second infringement, the swimmers are shown a red flag and a card bearing their number, and they can be asked to immediately leave the water.

So what kind of race is expected in the Olympics?

It will be an extremely tactical and close race, carefully monitored by Dennis Miller and Ronnie Wong and their teams. Whistles and yellow cards will add to the excitement of the race...and hopefully, no red cards will be issued.

Photo by Dr. Jim Miller of the start at the 2003 World Swimming Championships 5K race.

Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association