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While Media machinery quickly spread the news of Phelps’ miraculous swim-fest and his eight gold medals, questions linger whether he should have the 7th gold medal.
Fans, and increasingly journalists question what happened at the 100 m butterfly swim at Beijing's Aqua Center.
Officially, Phelps won the race. Unofficially, Phelps’ coach Bob
Bowman, all the fans at the Aqua Center, and most importantly underwater TV
footages, photos, show Serbia’s Milorad Cavic as the victor.
- I thought Michael lost. I was pretty sure he lost, but after
watching the scores show up on the board, I was amazed, said Phelps’s
coach, adding he believed in the “OMEGA” electronics, used by the World
Swimming Federation (FINA) for time measurement. “OMEGA” waited several seconds after the race was over to post the times, awarding Phelps a victory over Cavic by 0.01 seconds.
The Serbian Swimming Federation protested Phelps’ victory as soon
as the times were posted. Instead of FINA seriously looking at the
race, they immediately scoffed at the Serbian request telling them
there is nothing to review or discuss.
AFP photographer Michael
Kapeller who took over 50 images of the 100m butterfly race issued a
photo where it is clearly shown that Serbia’s Milorad Cavic
touches the wall first. To make matters worse, Michael Phelps touched
the wall with one hand, the rules state a swimmer must touch the wall
with both hands simultaneously. Here is where it gets tricky.
FINA had forbidden distribution of the AFP photos where Cavic’s victory
is too obvious. Why ban distribution of photos? FINA’s
director Kornel Markulesku issued a statement for the New York Times
where he claimed ‘everything is clear, Michael Phelps won the race’,
however, the NYT doesn’t agree with the statement, adding FINA is
hiding Phelps’ loss. Coincidentally, FINA’s timekeeper “OMEGA” is one of Michael Phelps’ sponsors.
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