Ian Thorpe stunned by 'never seen' rule as Aussies claim surprise medal in Olympics relay
The Australian swimming legend was taken aback by the unusual move in the men's 4x200m relay.
There were extraordinary scenes in the men's 4x200m relay at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday night - not only because Australia claimed an unexpected bronze medal. A massive talking point was the fact there was an extra team in the race - with nine countries swimming in the final rather than the usual eight.
The strange situation came about because Israel and Japan produced the exact same time in the heats - which ended up being the eighth-fastest qualifying time. Rather than make the two countries swim off for a place in the final, officials made the rare call of allowing both to advance.
It meant Israel swum in lane 0 in the final - which is normally unused - next to Japan in lane 1. Aussie legend Ian Thorpe admitted he'd never seen anything like it, and didn't even know it was possible to allow nine teams into a final.
Under World Aquatics rules, Olympic pools must have 10 lanes for this exact scenario. But we normally only see eight lanes being used, with the two on the end free. "I've never seen that before," Thorpe said in commentary for Channel 9. "That is because two teams tied for eighth place off the heats this morning.
"Usually if there was an equal-place third, the eighth lane in a pool, we would have a swim-off, which is the usual rule. We found out in a relay they actually have a different rule to allow an extra team to be able to swim."
Thorpe also pointed out that under FINA rules, world records aren't normally official if there's an extra swimmer or team in a race. But in the relays they are. "You cannot set a world record if someone is swimming in the outside lanes of the pool," Thorpe added. "To make the pool as fair as possible for each swimmer. It turns out, you can break the world record in this."
Considering how slow the pool has been in Paris, a world record was never really on the cards. The shallower pool causes more turbulence in the water, and with an extra team competing it was even choppier for the athletes.
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Aussies claim remarkable bronze medal in 4x200m relay
Australia's team of Max Giuliani, Flynn Southam, Elijah Winnington and Thomas Neill took the bronze behind Great Britain and the United States. The Americans have won the event a staggering 17 times, but GB caused a huge boilover on Tuesday night.
And the Aussies also caused a big shock to get the bronze, and nearly upstaged the US for silver. Giaan Rooney said on Channel 9: “Once again, we said, on paper, they shouldn’t even be in medal contention, and they have smashed that expectation."
Thorpe said: “I thought at one stage that was going to be silver. The men have over-performed in this (race). They can be very proud of themselves. They are going to be so over the moon with the bronze medal in this race. The Australians will be celebrating that performance tonight."
The bronze was one of two medals Australia won in the pool on Tuesday night. Kaylee McKeown won an incredible gold in the 100m backstroke, becoming just the fourth Australian woman to defend a title in Olympics history.
