Brenton Rickard agrees with Cameron van der Burgh idea of using video technology – Swimming News
Former record holder of the 100m breaststroke and Australian expert, Brenton Rickard has agreed with the Cameron van der Burgh’s idea of bringing video technology to monitor the multiple dolphin kicks in the breaststroke discipline.
Van der Burgh, who captured gold medal of the 100m breaststroke discipline at the 2012 London Olympic Games in a new world record pace, used three dolphin kicks before reaching the water surface, after he dived into the pool.
The 24-year-old South African swimmer bravely admitted that he used multiple dolphin kicks and stressed that he was not the only one in the pool doing that. He stated that the former record holder of the event, Rickard was next to him in the lanes and did
exactly the same.
He also articulated that 99 percent of the breaststroke swimmers take advantage of this loophole and the only reason is FINA’s decision not to use underwater footage to check the adherence of rules by swimmers.
The South African swimmer insisted the use of bringing technology in the game, saying that this would give a fair chance to all swimmers and make the sport cleaner. He justified his actions by saying that he had no intention of putting his four years of
hard work in danger by not using multiple kicks, when everyone in the pool does it.
“I think only if you can bring in underwater footage that’s when everybody will stop doing it because that’s when you’ll have peace of mind to say,” said van der Burgh.
“I’m not going to comment on whether it is cheating or whatever, but the rules are there to be enforced and the reason out of competition drug testing occurred was to deter cheaters as much as to catch them and if you increase the chance of catching cheaters
then you are going to deter people from doing it,” Rickard said.
Rickard emphasised the use of video technology for checking the underwater strokes, saying that this would make the sport healthier and competition tougher. Furthermore, it is said that the use of video technology in swimming is under consideration by FINA.
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