From: masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.olympics
Subject: Re: Banned Techniques
Date: 15 Aug 92 01:00:16 GMT
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <1992Aug12.141810.8650@walter.bellcore.com> kenl@origami.cc.bellcore.com (Ken Lehner) writes:

>(unknown other author quoted)

>|> >>  In Seoul, 1988, another Japanese swimmer Suzuki won a gold medal for
>|> >>backstroke. His swimming was charcterized by very long Basaro (sp?) start,
>|> >>the start going under the water with a dolphin kick, which pushed him 
>|> >>up to #1 in the world. After the Seoul Olympic, the international rule was
>|> >>changed so that the Basaro start was allowed to use only for a limited 
>|> >>distance, which made Suzuki less competitive.

>Not quite.  It was the "Berkoff blastoff", named after Harvard swimmer David
>Berkoff, who was the #1 swimmer before, during, and after the Seoul games (he
>held the world record, took the silver in the 100m, and broke his own world
>record as the leadoff leg in the 4x100 medley relay).  They banned it because
>they felt it was no longer the backstroke.  (BTW, Mr. Berkoff got the bronze
>in '92, coming out of retirement).

   I am the unknown guy who posted the message above.

   As Mr. Lehner mentioned, Berkoff took silver, not gold. That could make a 
big difference. 
   If they felt it was not backstroke, they should probably have 
banned it before the Olympic Games. Well, on the second thought, Suzuki
won a gold... maybe, I shouldn't complain 8-).
   
>Trivia:  do you know how the butterfly came about?  Way back, someone realized
>that the rules governing the breaststroke did not disallow an over-the-water
>recovery of the arms.  This person (nationality unknown to me) went on to win
>the Olympics using this technique.  The powers-that-be felt that this was
>differed enough from the breaststroke to set up rules for a new stroke.

   Would it have been possible to make a new event like "Berkoff 
blastoff 50 m"? Naaaaaah. Too boring.

   BTW, I was suprised to know that this thread is becoming some
nationalistic conflict while I was not paying attention. 

   I don't think it matters who invented a novel technique or
what his/her nationality is. The point that I wanted to emphasize is
that changes in the rules could totally jeopardize the efforts that an 
athelete has been making. Another problem is that those changes do not
always appear to be proposed with a reasonable reason. It seems that
rules are changed by committee members *officially* whether actual players are
feeling it necessary or not. Presence of this gray zone and the fact
that the change could benefit a certain country make us suspect that some
political or commercial pressure should be involved in the decision.

   Since I am a Japanese, my examples happened to be those of Japanese
swimmers that I remember. Although I also mentioned the US basketball team, 
my intention was not a nationalistic blast nor US bashing. I was expecting
that a part of my posting that was not quoted might convey my real message.
(Oh well, it didn't work.)
   There are many cases where rule changes affected athletes' career wherever
they are from. The new scoring system in boxing might be one of them. 
A rule change could affect the state of art of certain sport. For example,
judo is traditionally a defensive art against attack. However, the present
international rule requires a judoist to be aggresive and to attack
actively. Judo is not judo any longer. Maybe, JOC shouldn't have 
proposed that judo be included in the Olympic.

Michiaki Masuda
Newsgroups: rec.sport.olympics