Single dolphin kick would mean giving yourself a disadvantage, says Cameron van der Burgh
The world mark holder of the 100m breaststroke, Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa has admitted the use of multiple dolphin kicks after his dive, saying that not using three dolphin kicks would have meant that you are giving yourself a disadvantage.
The 24-year-old South African swimmer, who broke the record of the double lap breaststroke discipline at the 2012 London Olympic Games, further added that he was not alone as almost all the breaststroke swimmers do the same.
Burgh clocked a blasting 58.46 seconds effort to improve the world record of the discipline and enjoyed an aggressive lead of almost half a second over his following swimmer, Christian Sprenger of Australia, who posted 58.93 seconds for silver medal.
The South African swimmer did not run away from the issue and stressed that he was not the only swimmer in the event to do so. He stated that the former record holder of the discipline, Australia’s Brenton Rickard, who was in the next lane to him, was doing
the exactly same thing, but they are raising questions on him only.
“I think every single swimmer does that. At the point in time before the ’fly kick was legal [when swimmers weren’t allowed any dolphin kicks at all], [Japan’s four-time Olympic gold medallist Kosuke] Kitajima was doing it, and obviously the Americans were
complaining,” van der Burgh told.
While emphasising the need of using multiple dolphin kicks, Burgh said, ‘‘It’s got to the sort of point where if you’re not doing it you’re falling behind or your giving yourself a disadvantage so everyone’s pushing the rules and pushing the boundaries,
so if you’re not doing it, you’re not trying hard enough.‘‘
He said that 99 percent of the breaststroke swimmers use multiple dolphin kicks. Unfortunately, the aquatics sport governing body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), does not uses underwater or video technology to take decisions for such actions.
The South African swimmer insisted that FINA should use video technology so the sport should be clean from flaws and everyone should get a fair chance for what they have prepared for the last four years.
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