As a strokes & turns judge for US swimming (summer time only⌠when soccer refereeing dies down⌠because US swimming officials do not get paid, it is all volunteer⌠seriously?)⌠trivia questionâŚ
When is the only time freestyle is not judged as âfreestyleâ?
On the medley relay. âAny stroke other than the first three.â
Now describe the Lochte Rule in easy terms 
I think @DentistHoo just did above. LOL! On the medley relay and IM⌠you must swim any stroke other than the first three⌠which ends up being the crawl. Which means Lochte cannot swim on the back, but must change to on the breast swimming while submerged and dolphin kicking.
Ha â you can dolphin kick on your back during the freestyle leg of an IM.
For Lochte, if I remember correctly, his underwaters were faster on his back than they were on his side.
(Just canât cross the 15M mark underwater.)
You cannot⌠it must be on the breast. I literally just went through recertification last week. The 15M mark is still a thing as well. That was a different rule.
yep - must be past vertical toward the breast off the wall for freestyle.
ha ha - who would have thought this would ever come up on a UVA basketball board?
I can imagine the head-shakingâŚ
Going past vertical when she touched the wall is what cost Alex Walsh an Olympic medal I think.
yep, on the back-to-breast turn.
Lochte did â and they changed the rule because he was faster doing it that way. Said that all strokes and underwaters have to be distinct in the IM. But thatâs bullshit because the fly and free underwaters are nearly identical.
Thatâs not the Lochte rule though.
Has to do with the underwater on the free leg of the IM.
Didnât say it was. I was just responding to the post above mine off the phrase past vertical with a random memory I had when I read the words past vertical.
Correct.
Shifting back - an amazing night for the Hoos.
First, the feel-good stories.
Claire Curzan and Jack Aikins both win the 200 Back, clinching spots on the World Champs team.
Both missed the Paris Olympics by a few hundredths of a second last year, just crushing blows. It happened to Aikins twice, actually.
Amazing dedication and fortitude to train another year for this moment and win.
Next, Gretchen breaks her own 50 Fly American record and moves in real striking distance of Sarah Sjostrumâs world record nobody thought possible.
Kate Douglass finished second in the 50 Fly, after winning the 200 Breast about 30 minutes earlier.
Alex Walsh finished second and Katie Christopherson dropped a huge time and finished third.
Hoos won FOUR national champs/world team trials events tonight.
For those of us who were every 4 years swimming fans until UVa got good, how big of a deal is the World Championships vs the Olympics?
I like the concept thatâŚ
counts as something weâd feel bad about (as opposed to the âfeel-goodâ stories in the first part). Like, âOnly four? Damn, program is in tatters.â
Yeah, understandable.
Only meant that in the sense that Aikins literally missed making the Olympics by a total of like 0.17 seconds in two events.
And Curzan missed it by 0.07 I think.
So just the most crushing outcome. Both of them were asked how it felt to overcome that after their wins last night and gave great answers.
OTOH, last night was Gretchenâs 25th American record swim. So, you know, just an everyday thing
Kidding - sheâs blowing peopleâs minds.
Re Olympics vs World ChampsâŚ
Worlds are the same level of competition - the best each country has every non-Olympic year.
But the Olympics has the scarcity and being part of the larger story every four years, so thatâs just where the spotlight is brightest.
Worlds also has both long-course (50-meter pool) and short-course (25-meter) each year, so the frequency tends to mute the attention outside the swimming world itself.
But itâs pretty much the highest level of achievement to make a Worlds or Olympic team and win a medal.
Out of curiosity- who is considered the bigger talent/ Olympic threat going forward between Kate and Gretchen?
Well, Iâm just one opinion and wouldnât frame it as âthe bigger talent,â though I sense what you mean. Theyâre both arguably among the top 4-7 swimmers in the world right now, along with Summer McIntosh, Katie Ledecky, Kaylee McKeown, etc.
Both dominate their top events - Gretchen in the 50 and 100 Butterfly and Kate in the 200 Breast. Kate already won a Gold Medal. Gretchen has now swum the fastest 7 times in history in the 100 Fly and is closing fast on what almost everyone thought was an untouchable 50 Fly world record.
The question is how that will hold up over the next 3 years for both.
Kate is widely regarded as one of the most crazily versatile swimmers. Sheâs one of the fastest 5-7 50 and 100 Free sprinters in the world, the 2nd fastest 50 Fly sprinter right now, and has won Olympic Silver and Bronze in the 200 IM already along with her 200 Breast Gold.
Gretchen is on another planet right now with her Butterfly and general improvement. She dominates an entire pool length in multiple strokes (25 meters/yards) and has broken 25 American records this year already.
Sheâs also quickly overcoming her past weakness in 50-meter pools where her amazing underwaters have less advantage and she would die.
So honestly, they have serious parallels and differences, so itâs just fun to watch them both.
Gretchen is the one whoâs just blowing peopleâs minds, and Kate is sort of the one that everyone knows will beat you in whatever she puts her mind to.
And donât forget Claire Curzan and Alex Walsh, who would be the clear superstars almost anywhere else.
Appreciate the insight! Last (maybe) question- how did we take the crown from Stanford and start this domination? Seemingly happened overnight