Report: Qualifying times for 17 swimmers questioned

The qualifying times for several Olympic swimmers were called into question, according to a published report on Wednesday.

Seventeen swimmers from 16 countries — 11 men and six women — listed qualifying times that didn’t match the actual results from the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, last August, The Guardian reported. The times for nine competitors did not match the championships, and eight listed entry times for events they either did not compete in or were disqualified from in Kazan.

The 17 swimmers with questionable times made it to the Rio Games under the International Olympic Committee’s “universality rule.”  The rule allows countries to nominate one male and female swimmer who has not achieved a qualifying time.

FINA — which still processes Olympic applications by hand — passed the blame to the Rio Organizing Committee, according to the report. The organizing committee told the newspaper that FINA has the final responsibility.

Kenya’s Hamdan Bayusuf was among the 17 swimmers who had a qualifying result from last summer’s championships that didn’t jibe. Bayusuf was listed with a time of 59.99 seconds, but his time actually was 1 minute, 7 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke.

The Guardian reported that there is nothing to suggest that swimmers had knowledge of the changed times. FINA had fixed the qualifying times of 40 other swimmers ahead of Rio.

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