Comment by bee_rider

Comment by bee_rider 2 days ago

4 replies

It is annoying that rules were added to the “freestyle” race, to preclude these new better underwater forms of swimming. Freestyle ought to mean you are free to pick any style.

mikeytown2 2 days ago

The rule is only on the IM; freestyle can't be butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke.

  • bee_rider 2 days ago

    They added a rule in 1998, you can only go 15 meters underwater after the flip. Although I guess there are safety concerns, which seems reasonable…

  • aleph_minus_one 2 days ago

    But why do we need this rule if front crawl is faster anyway?

    • bee_rider 2 days ago

      IM stands for individual medley so it makes sense that they’d restrict the swimming types in that race