Instant Replay In The Olympics?

[Retromaniac]

After the controversial dolphin kick by the Japanese swimmer, should the Olympics have instant replay reviews in Torino and Beijing?

[slapshot]

not necessarily. The reason the kick was not judged illegal at the time is because the judges do not have the video access that the fans and television networks do. Everyone but the judges saw the allegedly illegal kick underwater.

What needs to be done is to give the judges access to more video angles. Get special underwater judges, or give them underwater video feeds, and then this problem is solved.

[pcgd]

I heard about this...what is a dolphin kick?

[NJTank]

I think they shoudl tehy have the angkles and all why not get it right. Its a 2 minute race and 1 second 1 little cheat can make all teh difference.

[Saintsfan]

I have always thought the use of video needs to be done really really carefully. Most replays that are used are slow motion, which distort the perception of the image, you ave a slow 2-d image to look at rather than a normal speed 3-d image which judges using there naked eye will use. I honestly don't know what the answer is to be honest, except that athletes should always accept the judgement of umpires, referees etc, however that decision is made

[Joshawaggie]

I heard about this...what is a dolphin kick?

i'm curious too, someone explain!

[STL FANATIC]

Okay, I'm a swimmer so...

A dolphin kick is the kick that most commonly goes with the butterfly stroke.

It is basically the simple motion of keeping your legs together, moving them at the same time, with minimal knee bend, and usually getting your rear up and down with each kick.

Can you guys picture that? It's sort of hard to explain.

Well, here, I'll take it more simplistic...imagine your legs are one, not two, and you have a fin, like..well... a dolphin...it's the up and down motion of how you'd get the fin to propel you forward...

Making sense to anyone?

Dolphin kick is also used when pushing off the wall in backstroke, and when going into a turn in freestyle. It's not something I've ever been taught to do, but I think I might have seen some swimmers push off the wall in freestyle with dolphin kick, too. Both backstroke and freestyle use flutter kick (simple seperated leg up and down kick) for the rest of the stroke, but dolphin is not illegal in certain parts of the swim.

The only stroke that dolphin kick has no relevance to is breastroke (simply...frog swim)...hence the contreversy.

[STL FANATIC]

I think this makes a point about those who don't like seeing events with no clear cut winner but rather a winner decided by judges in the Olympics. I'd argue that officials in these supposed clear cut winners throw in that human element of some times distorting who wins.

[the_cynic]

Yes, they need to incorporate it. This isn't the first time this has been an issue and it won't be the last.