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American swimmer Alex Walsh was disqualified after finishing third in the women’s 200m individual medley despite being expected to win.
Walsh led the final 25 meters of his freestyle lap but was caught off guard when he touched the wall. Summer in Canada McIntosh and teammate Kate Douglas.
But Walsh won Tokyo Olympics Silver MedalWalsh was disqualified for improperly transitioning from backstroke to breaststroke, according to USA Swimming. The transition is tricky and has been a point of contention among swimming officials. The rules for each stroke in the medley competition are the same, and for the backstroke, “swimmers must touch the wall while lying on their backs,” according to FINA. In the individual medley, swimmers must touch the wall before moving into the next stroke, which is the breaststroke, which is swimming face-down. When Walsh touched the wall to complete her backstroke on Saturday, her abdomen was facing the bottom of the pool, leading to her disqualification.
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Swimmers have a number of options for transitioning from backstroke to breaststroke – touching the wall while lying on their back, then drawing their knees to their chest and pushing off the wall in a prone position; doing a deeper backflip like a gymnast and then rolling over to a prone position; and finally, the riskier way, the crossover turn. The crossover turn can be done in two ways – in the first, the swimmer touches the wall sideways after the last stroke on their back, but makes sure not to rotate more than 90 degrees. With this turn, the swimmer touches the wall, extends their arms straight and rotates into a prone position while maintaining contact with the wall to perform the breaststroke. In the second, the swimmer turns to one side and extends one hand to push against the wall behind them while remaining in a supine position and not to rotate more than 90 degrees, which results in a disqualification. The swimmer then pulls their forehead to their knees, turns around and faces the direction they started the breaststroke.
Walsh’s sister, Gretchen, also competed in the Paris Olympics. She won gold in the 4x100m medley relay and in the 100m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay.
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