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Olympics rocked by disqualification drama as swimming fans stunned by 'devastating' moment

Viewers were left heartbroken for the swimmer after he thought he'd qualified for the semi-finals.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read

There was devastation for Team GB at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday night when swimmer Luke Greenbank was disqualified from the 200m backstroke heats. Greenbank thought he'd won his heat to progress to the semi-finals, but was left shattered when it flashed up on the big screen that he'd been DQ'd.

The British athlete looked visibly shocked and threw his hands to his head in despair, after officials deemed he'd swum too far underwater after one of his turns. After each turn, swimmers have to breach the surface before the 15m mark.

Luke Greenbank, pictured here after he was disqualified at the Olympics.
Luke Greenbank didn't come up from underwater before the 15m mark. Image: AAP/Eurosport

A video review revealed that Greenbank was still underwater when he passed the 15m mark at the start of his final lap. Greenbank collapsed to his knees and ripped his swimming cap off, and appeared to be on the verge of tears that his Olympic dream had been ruined.

“I don’t know what to say, absolutely gutted," he told Eurosport. “It’s really annoying, I feel like I’m on good form.”

Luke Greenbank.
Luke Greenbank was devastated after being disqualified. Image: AAP

Australian swimming great Nicole Livingstone had said in commentary: “That underwater from Greenbank was unbelievable. It’s flashing on our screen in the stadium the video review are going to have a look at this. They’ll be looking for the length of the underwater. Greenbank was a long time underwater. I think he’s in trouble.”

When the disqualification was confirmed she said: “I’m devastated for him. He knew. He would have known because they know how many kicks they need before they get to the 15m mark. Wow. Drama in Paris.”

Greenbank was an outside chance for gold in the 200m backstroke in Paris, after winning bronze in the event in Tokyo in 2021. He was also a member of the 4x100m medley relay team that won silver.

Australia won two silver medals in the pool on Wednesday night, while Mollie O'Callaghan was heartbroken to finish fourth in the 100m freestyle. The 200m champion was widely tipped to add another gold medal, but finished just 0.01 off the podium in an incredibly tight finish.

"I expected a lot more," a disappointed O'Callaghan said. "But at the end of the day you've got to suck it up and wait another four years. I was really nervous heading into this, didn't have a lot of sleep over the past few days. I tried really hard to manage myself and get up for this but I knew 100 free was going to be hard because it's a lot about speed and that's something I really lack in. I knew it was going to be at tough race ... it's 0.01 (of a second), if you stuff something up it costs you."

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Kyle Chalmers and Zac Stubblety-Cook were also a chance for gold in the men's 100m free and 200m breaststroke respectively, but had to settle for silver. The Aussies were left in awe of barnstorming performances from Pan Zhanle (who broke the freestyle world record) and Loen Marchand (breaststroke Olympic record).

"He's got a motor and he's hungry ... he is probably on the cusp of being arguably the greatest swimmer to come," Stubblety-Cook said of his French rival. "We're only just seeing the beginning of Leon. It's his moment. And maybe if it was someone else, I wouldn't be as happy for him. But I'm stoked for him to have that moment in front of a home crowd, for him to soak that up is awesome and see him achieve that. I can't complain."