Photo shown above by Javier Blazquez shows American Christine Jennings in white swim cap competing at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships 5 km race in Sevilla, Spain. She is surrounded by and was simultaneously impeded for a moment by four athletes including German Olympian Angela Maurer on her left in a black swim cap and swimsuit, by Australian Olympian Melissa Gorman on her right in a white AUS swim cap, and Brazilian Olympian Poliana Okimoto behind her in a green swim cap.

Officials in the sport of competitive open water swimming have to keep their eyes focused on fields up to 80 athletes for more than 2 hours where these kinds of physical interactions occur all over the field of play.

We believe officiating elite open water swimming events is among the most difficult and challenging scenario to serve as a referee in the world of sports. There are many reasons and comparisons to make this bold statement:

• There are generally only two officials – a Head Referee and an Assistant Referee – who are assigned to officiate fields up to 80 open water swimmers throughout races that can last over two hours.
• While there may be other officials positioned at the feeding stations, start pontoon, and around the turn buoys, it is these two officials who follow the lead pack and the trailing packs of swimmers throughout the race – and have to make immediate judgment calls without the benefit of reviews or replays.
• All the swimmers attempt to swim the same course, leading to either inadvertent, accidental, or unintentional instances of impeding and swimming over one another or purposeful, intentional, or retalitory instances of hitting, pulling back, and touching other swimmers.
• There are only four officiating possibilities: (1) do nothing and ignore the infraction, (2) blow a warning whistle that hopefully restores a fair competition or puts a stop to physicality between swimmers, (3) give a yellow card, or (4) give a red card. If a yellow card is given, the strategies of the swimmer who called for the infraction as well as the strategies of the swimmers who were not called for the infraction can and often do change. The official directly impacts the strategies utilized in the race.
• There is no rescinding of the call (e.g., warning whistle or yellow card or red card) once a decision is made.
• All of these decisions are made while standing on a moving boat on water that can be rough and wavy in a venue that can be sweltering hot or quite cold with glare off the water’s surface.
• In water polo, there are two referees and coaches who disagree with their calls can express their opinions. There are no coaches on the open water swimming course and no interactions between the referees and coaches during the rce.
• In diviing, there are several judges and the athlete’s score is a combination of the judges’ scores.
• In pool swimming, there are judges at either end of the pool and an official on the side of the pool deck – and the races are televised above and below the water. If a swimmer and their coach disagrees with the call of the judges, the video can be reviewed and the judgments can be rescinded. There is no footage of open water races that is used to review during or after the races – the only video footage that is reviewed is the footage of the race finish.

The 2016 Olympic Case of Aurélie Muller versus Rachele Bruni

Images courtesy of NBCOlympics.com on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Background

As Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands emphatically slapped the finish pontoon to win the women’s Olympic 10K Marathon Swim on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Aurélie Muller of France and Rachele Bruni of Italy sprinted down the finish chute.

Muller was a bit wide of her ultimate goal, on the far left side of the chute. Muller hit one of the guide buoys that holds up the finish pontoon and took a stroke that landed her on top of Bruni. Muller let out a yell and just barely touched ahead of Bruni. Although Muller was initially awarded the silver medal, knowledgeable referees waited for head referee John West to make a call. Observers had clearly seen that Muller had swum on top of Bruni, unintentionally it seemed but instinctively given her position relative to Bruni and the finish touch pade. The initial decision was later overturned and Muller was ultimately disqualified.

This decision resulted in a silver medal for Bruni and the bronze medal to be given to 33-year-old Poliana Okimoto of Brazil.

Infraction Description

In the photos above, Muller has a white cap on and is on the outside (left) of Bruni who has the black swim cap on. While no one wants to see a disqualification of a tightly contested race, especially on the last strokes of a hotly contested 10 km course, the fact was that Muller found herself on top of Bruni, her position and her body weight caused Bruni to sink down in the water. This is the reason why Bruni was impeded which is a call for disqualification.

On the other hand, Muller’s move seemed to be unintentional and it could also have been ruled an infraction – not a disqualification – and she could have been given a yellow card. But with the last stroke of the Olympic race with head referee John West right there, Muller’s move led to her touching out Bruni. This sinking of her rival as they were reaching up to touch the finish panel was judged to be an infraction for impeding.

Muller’s problem was that she already had a yellow card and was automatically disqualified for this second impeding infraction.

Bruni swam straight into the finish chute from at least 200 meters out. It was her right to swim straight without being impeded.

Bruni did not veer into Muller who swam a bit left of the finish pontoon and buoy. She, unfortunately, ran into the buoy. When she realized it, she appeared to take a cross-over stroke that landed her on top of Bruni. Her impeding of Bruni could not have come at a worse time for the reigning world champion. Her last stroke seemed to be more of an instinctive move rather than an intentional action to gain an advantage over an opponent. Her scream put an exclamation point on the dramatic, unexpected finish, and ultimate disqualification and awarding of an Olympic medal to the young French woman.

2024 Paris Olympic Games Head Referee – Britta Kamrau

The first female referee at an Olympic Games was Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia (shown above on left). Taylor-Smith understood the tactics, moves, and strategies of the highest echelon of competitors – because that was previously her community.

The next female head referee at the World Championship level was Britta Kamrau of Germany (shown above on right and below). Like Taylor-Smith, Kamrau comes from the highest echelon of professional competitors – and knows well the tactics, moves, and strategies of the world’s best open water swimmers.

This was a great decision by the Technical Open Water Swimming Committee of World Aquatics to place these knowledgeable, experienced women in a position of authority. They have the demeanor, background and familiarity to make split-second decisions that can impact the outcome of the Olympic podium finishers.

Kamrau says of her heavy responsibilities, “Of course, you want to give something back to the sport and at the same time it widened my own horizons.”

The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer who won 26 international medals during her illustrious marathon swimming career has served as a senior public prosecutor in Germany for 12 years. The mother of three children was most recently the Head Referee during the women’s 10 km Olympic qualification race recently held at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar won by Sharon van Rouwendaal.

Photos of Kamrau by Ignasi Vendrell and Lucas Dawson for World Aquatics

© 2016 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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