How Falling On Purpose In Olympic Cycling Gets You A Do-Over
“Hooray loopholes!”
The hosts of the Olympics had a bit of a slow start to these games, but Great Britain has turned it around and is pulling in medals at an impressive pace, but yesterday they were overshadowed by yet another Olympic controversy. This time, it comes in the men’s team sprint competition (on bikes). The British men won gold (congrats), but almost failed to make it out of the first round. Fortunately for them, they found a loophole (of chasm-like proportions) that allowed them to get a restart after a slip at the start threatened to get them eliminated early. That loop hole? Just fall down…on purpose…and then tell everyone about it.
From Velo News:
“So I crashed, I did it on purpose just to get the restart, just to have the fastest ride. It was all planned, really,” said (Philip) Hindes.
The 19-year-old said that, with so much at stake in the London Olympic velodrome, he had talked over such scenarios with the British team.
“When that happens you can lose so much time… my only chance was to crash and get the restart,” said Hindes, who admitted that neither (Sir Chris) Hoy or (Jason) Kenny had been fazed by his actions.
“I think they knew I’d done it on purpose,” he said. “We were speaking yesterday, that if anything happens someone has to crash. So I did it.”
Apparently in team sprint, three cyclists ride in a single file for a lap. After a lap, the leading cyclist peels off and after the second lap another cyclist drops back, which leaves the third cyclist to complete the race. Hindes was in the “man on” position, which had him leading the opening lap. He ran into some trouble out of the start, however, skidding out of the gate and was in danger of being passed by his teammates, which would have resulted in a disqualification. Instead of allowing that to happen, Hindes just fell over, which allowed the team to restart the entire race (where they did much better).
According to the rules, in the event of an early crash, teams are allowed to restart their race. Intent of crashing, however, doesn’t matter, it seems. Even after Hindes openly admitted to purposefully taking the spill, the UCI backed the result and the IOC ruled that Britain’s gold medal would stand.
If this sounds an awful lot like the story a few days ago where eight women were disqualified from the Olympic badminton competition for throwing matches…it’s because it is. The badminton teams were trying to take advantage of a misguided rule to improve their draw in the tournament and ultimately improve their shot at a medal. The Brits took advantage of a rule that ignores intent of a crash to get a restart and go on to win the gold medal. Intentionally failing to ultimately succeed: the Olympic spirit at work!
The French team, who took silver in the event, are understandably upset but recognize that there is nothing in the rule book that prevents something like this from happening. They are hoping that Hindes admitting to it will force some kind of change so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Great Britain has released a statement denying that Hindes took the fall intentionally, calling his quote ”lost in translation,” which is hard to believe since Hindes was speaking English to the reporters (though he is German-born).
Despite the intent to crash on purpose, the uproar of the runners-up, and the overall ridiculous nature of the rule, nothing will take away the fact that the Brits won gold. Down the road, hopefully the IOC and UCI can recognize the embarrassment that this rule is and make changes to prevent it from happening again. Until then, remember that the Olympics is all about doing your best at all time to preserve the sanctity of sport…unless you slip at the start, then just fall down and get a do-over. Olympics!
(pic via)
Good job with a sad story.
Thank you for the re-blog. And thanks for your kind words. I love the Olympics, or at least the intended spirit of the Olympics, but so many bad rules, corrupt officials, and ridiculous decisions really take the shine off it.
I reblogged your article here: http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/2165/
If that is problem, please let me know and I will remove it at once.
Allan
Not at all, I always appreciate the sharing. I’m happy it resonated with you and wanted to share! Thanks!
Reblogged this on Ohm Sweet Ohm and commented:
The “Medal Count” is turning the Olympics into a caricature of itself. This gentleman is doing an admirable job covering the news out of London.
Thank you! I’m doing my best, and I’m glad it’s resonating!
I am so ashamed of this. Makes me feel ill to be English. How low have we sunk as a nation, how low have we sunk as individuals.
Placed in context and compared with the doping, matchfixing and palmgreasing that has been associated with the Olympics over the years Philip Hindes could at least argue that he used an existing loophole. Whether it could be regarded as fair play is another matter altogether. I imagine his team mates have now realised that he is better at cycling that PR and wish he had just kept his mouth shut. As for your references to nationality, I was born and brought up in London and always call myself British. Hindes is a member of “Team GB” not “Team England” because it includes people from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales as well as England. One of the reasons I felt that the United Kingdom was a poor choice for the Olympics is that most of the events would be held in England and citizens in the rest of the country would feel left out. There has been an unexpected benefit and that is that everyone has felt able to display the Union flag openly after it was claimed for decades by the British far right.
The rules are the biggest culprit in this. Why would you keep a rule in place that rewards taking a dive and has no ramifications when an athlete admits to failing on purpose? It’s a silly rule that has brought embarrassment to the sport
It’s a very strange rule, but I don’t blame the cyclists for taking advantage of it if they knew they could. It’s the same for all teams right? I think the main reason there was such a backlash after the badminton was that so many people had paid money to go and watch them serve into the net. Although it was terrible to see, I do feel a little sorry for them as they didn’t break the rules. The strange events we are seeing is due to bad rule making – it’s hard enough to ask sportsmen to play inside the rules let alone castigate them when they do, but we don’t agree with it!! I’m fairly sure the “lost in translation” bit means “normal person speak” to “press speak” not actually linguistics.
In terms of the Olympics being in England and leaving parts of the country out (poster above) – it shouldn’t really be an issue. The Olympics are the London Olympics, not the British Olympics. The Olympics is awarded to a city (ie Atlanta, LA who have had it and aren’t capitals), such as the World’s were in Manchester a few years ago. As far as I can tell the whole of GB has embraced it (having some events like the football outside of London has probably helped) and don’t feel left out. In fact to some extent they probably prefer it, as they can go visit but don’t have their daily commute wrecked for 3 weeks! I live in Birmingham and although the atmosphere isn’t crazy like in London, there are lots of flags, national (British) pride and excited people around. Who knows, the next Games application might be for Edinburgh or Cardiff, and hopefully it would be received just as well!
Anyway, that’s a long comment, should probably have been a blog post instead
Tis an interesting debate…
I blame the bad rules as much (or quite a bit more) for these embarrassing events as any of the athletes involved. You have four years to put this together, maybe read over the rule book to make sure you aren’t going to embarrass your sport?
You’d have thought so! The women’s team when Victoria Pendleton got disqualified was also largely down to interpretation of the rule (although apparently they should have known the particular refs application of the rule from a previous race), so there’s plenty to look at in cycling especially! 7 years since it was awarded! Oh well, sport can get refreshed and made more interesting at times when you get these odd stories I guess, you just don’t want them every day!!
Absolutely, they can take this attention and turn it into a big positive by making some changes to clarify and tighten up the rule book
Could some one pls explain the purpose of having 3 cyclist in the indoor sprint. I don’t understand the purpose of the 1st 2 cycllist when they drop off and the 3rd is left to finish and win. Why don’t the 3rd cyclist just do it themselves? Sorry about my ignorance and would like to understand the point of 3 cyclists
I believe the point is for the third cyclist to draft and build up speed so that he can be at full speed without over-exerting himself. I could e wrong though
The rule says “in the event of an early crash” not a purposeful or intentional crash. The reason he minced his words and then used the “lost in translation” excuse (which is ridiculous as he is speaking what is essentially his mother tongue) is precisely because an intentional crash is not justified even by this rule. The reason why the IOC let Team GB gold stand is so as to avoid another scandal. Had another country, other than the host, won in this despicable manner, the decision would definitely be different.
The rules state “In case of a mishap” which was clearly the case it is common practice to fall to attract the attention of the officials. Hindes spoke little english untill he moved to Manchester in Nov 2010. Know the facts and the sport then comment.
Great article. This entire Olympics has been ridiculous. I was trying to make such an effort to follow it this year too. But with all the scandals and NBC being NBC, I really don’t think I’ll follow the Olympics so closely again.
All these snafus really have taken away from some pretty compelling performances.
Well I just don’t care who gets the gold medal. It I find it a shame to twist the rules.
What an example. The whole world may be a stage but I don’t like the play. The spirit matters. Fair play. I read in the papers the Chinese had to learn to lose. I think they are not the only ones. The point is to take part in the games as Pierre de Coubertin said, not to find a tricky way to get medals.
I’m glad the best won and they were the British. But lots of medals would be redispatched differently had all competitors had a second chance.