How a two-hour swimming race ended with a photo finish and a DQ

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:14 p.m. ET

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Chris Chase

At the end of swimming's 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) race, your body feels like you just ran a marathon - with both your legs and your arms. That's why it's particularly cruel (but necessary) that swimmers approaching the finish aren't allowed to just stretch out and touch the wall like in an in-pool race but have to reach up nearly two feet to slam their hand into a raised touchpad floating on a pontoon boat.

It's a cruel fate France's Aurelie Muller won't soon forget as, after nearly two hours of swimming in Monday's Olympic open-water race in Rio, she was involved in a simultaneous-touch, jostling photo finish with Italy's Rachele Bruni for second place.

Despite the presence of six touch pads, two hours and six miles to separate themselves, the women were literally on top of each other as they approached the finish and, at the same exact time, reached up those painful 18 inches to slam the touchpad. To the naked eye, it was impossible to discern who touched first.

A photo finish determined that the Frenchwoman had slapped just ahead. The silver was hers - but not for long. After a review, a ruling was made that Muller had hindered Bruni's attempt toward the wall, basically by treating a swimming race like rugby sevens.

She was disqualified, Bruni was awarded the silver and, in a nice moment for the home nation, fourth-place finisher Poliana Okimoto moved up to bronze, the first medal for a Brazilian women's swimmer in history.

So what happened here? First, all credit to Sharon van Rouwendaal, who touched 17 seconds ahead of the offending pair. In open-water swimming, that's an insane margin of victory - 43 times greater than in the 2012 race. (We'll explain.)

Second, Muller had to cut to her right before her finish. She was coming in on a diagonal but that led her straight into a white buoy that pushed her to the inside on her final three strokes. It was like walking down a dwindling sidewalk side-by-side with someone. The move happened to lead Muller into Bruni's path. They had a scrum, Muller clearly held down Bruni but both got their hands up and slapped the wall at the same time.

"She pushed down my arm," Bruni said.

There were protests, but the DQ held.

So, two questions:

1. Why are the touchpads so high in open-water swimming? Because unlike pool water that's not green and in the diving well in Rio, ocean water is mostly opaque. Since you can't see underwater, raising an arm and slapping above it is the clearest way to see who touched when.

2. How are open-water swims (like the 0.4 seconds that decided the 2012 women's final) so close? If the longer distances in the swimming pool (400, 800, 1500) are routinely decided by a handful of seconds, why is the difference between gold and bronze often two seconds or less in a two-hour race? (Heck, some races see the top 25 swimmer separated by 15 seconds.) It's because, much like marathoners, swimmer stay in packs for much of the race. But unlike in marathons when runners can start their kicks a few miles out and attempt to hold on for a win, swimmers bide their time and conserve their energy to stay with the pack. It's like those cycling races in the velodrome -- all strategy until someone goes out for the sprint. It's almost as if there's a tacit agreement that the race is going to be an out-and-out charge to the finish.

In the pool, you're swimming your own race. In the open water, you're swimming the group's. And despite the oddity at the finish, at least the water seemed clean.

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