Cameron van der Burgh Admits to Cheating in 100m Breaststroke

by Emily Sutherlin | August 8, 2012 at 05:43 am

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London 2012: Cameron van der Burgh admitted to cheating during the 100-meter breaststroke.

South African gold medalist Cameron van der Burgh admitted to taking extra underwater kicks during his world-record performance in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Olympics, an illegal move that would have earned him a disqualification if judges had caught him.

In breaststroke, competitors are allowed to take one dolphin kick at the start and one after each turn before starting their breaststroke kick. But with no underwater video judging, swimmers are oftentimes able to sneak in an extra kick. Van der Burgh appears to take three of them based on video replays.

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In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, he said that he took extra kicks, but pointed out it's typical of other swimmers as well.

"If you're not doing it, you're falling behind," van der Burgh said. "It's not obviously — shall we say — the moral thing to do, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my personal performance and four years of hard work for someone that is willing to do it and get away with it.

"I think it's pretty funny of the Australians to complain because in the underwater footage if you actually look at Brenton Rickard in the lane next to me, he's doing the exact same thing as me yet they're turning a blind eye.

"It's got to the sort of point where if you're not doing it you're falling behind or you're giving yourself a disadvantage so everyone's pushing the rules and pushing the boundaries, so if you're not doing it, you're not trying hard enough."

Should van der Burgh lose his gold medal? Well, if we're going by the rules, yes.

Could van der Burgh lose his gold medal? Probably not. The time for appeal has long passed, and there's no replay review in swimming.