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[animax]

Were you trying on purpose to have a clickbait title? Weird.

My thoughts exactly.

Mods are ok with this?

 

[spuckthew]

When we're talking about 'preliminaries', I assume it's qualifications rather than heats? Because I'm sure I've seen Phelps et al do swims before finals...unless I've been deceived by their genius...

 

[Futureman]

Most of the swimmers don't even look tired right after they finish a race. Do you really think if Phelps had to swim a prelim race the day before, he would be so tired he'd lose the next day?

 

[JimJamJones]

 

[Lkr]

The point is that this is an interesting little known fact.

Most people just see Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian on the podium all the time without realizing that 4 other people they've never heard of also got the same medal for the same event.

I'm American, btw.

That makes sense. I'm a super sports nerd so I watch all of the heats and semi finals like the nerd I am. I'm assuming 98% of Americans watching the swimming finals don't watch any of the prelims unless they are in prime time between a medal race

 

[captive]

horrible clickt bait title, can't wait for some mod to make a clever backfire on the OP.

In my opinion this is cheating. Do other countries do this as well? The rules should be changed. You shouldnt be allowed to rest and save your strenght for the final. Also ridiculous to give somone who didnt swim the final a medal. Did you pass the finish line? No. Olympics are a joke.

yes they do, its not as if only the USA is allowed to this. Its not cheating in the slightest.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

If it's a team event, and you helped the team by performing at your best during the non prestigious moments (keeping the top guys fresh), don't you deserve to be rewarded too?

No one complains that the guys playing 10 minutes a night also get rings in the NBA, they still have to go out there and help the team not lose while the stars catch a breather. Or it would be much harder on the superstars.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

I can't write a midterm and let my friend write the final

 

[Nokagi]

When we're talking about 'preliminaries', I assume it's qualifications rather than heats? Because I'm sure I've seen Phelps et al do swims before finals...unless I've been deceived by their genius...

OP is trying to confuse. He's only speaking about team relays. Where it's a *gasp* team event. You can't change out people in solo events which is what you've seen Phelps racing in before the finals.

 

[Lkr]

I can't write a midterm and let my friend write the final

If it's a group project you can though.

 

[Dougald]

I feel like I just learned "one cool trick" the fat cats at the IOC didn't want us to now about.

IOC judges hate him

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

Everyone who participated got a medal. That's not doubling your medals.

 

[p2535748]

You should really remove "USA" from the title. Other countries do this as well. Not to the extent of the US, because the US has the deepest team, but they definitely do it. Look at the list of swimmers in the 4x100 from 2012 here

Here's the French Prelims:

Amaury Leveaux (48.61)
Alain Bernard (48.31)
Clément Lefert (48.14)
Jeremy Stravius (48.32)

Here's the finals:

Amaury Leveaux (48.13)
Fabien Gilot (47.67)
Clément Lefert (47.39)
Yannick Agnel (46.74)

It's pretty standard in swimming to do it, since relays have the prelims and finals on the same day, unlike other events.

 

[spuckthew]

OP is trying to confuse. He's only speaking about team relays. Where it's a *gasp* team event. You can't change out people in solo events which is what you've seen Phelps racing in before the finals.

I see. Thanks for clearing up!

 

[cwmartin]

So you're telling me the country with the better swimmers ended up winning? WOW WTF that's bullshit.

 

[thecouncil]

As long as it all counts as one gold per event, they could give Phelp's mom, wife and baby a gold medal every time he wins, for all I care.

 

[arglebargle]

if other countries were better at swimming the US wouldnt be able to do this. and since it does not have any effect on the medal count the main impact seems to be more americans getting laid in the olympic village, which i have no problem with.

 

[Angry Grimace]

It's fine because you have to actually be good enough to get your B team to win the prelims.

 

[Delicious Waffles]

That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing that.

Never knew that. It makes sense though.

 

[Zepp Twofist]

Aren't there like a billion gold medals for swimming in the first place? At this rate, anyone who has ever been submerged in a body of water are underachieving if they don't have an Olympic gold medal.

 

[Revolutionary]

Were you trying on purpose to have a clickbait title? Weird.

A lot of people have been doing this for the past couple of years. It's fucking bizarre. They're not getting paid for views, so wtf?

 

[Not Spaceghost]

It's a team event and everyone who contributed should be rewarded.

 

[LiK]

Very good strategy. All the athletes need to be good enough to get through all of the prelims and finals anyway so this is not an issue.

 

[Lkr]

You should really remove "USA" from the title. Other countries do this as well. Not to the extent of the US, because the US has the deepest team, but they definitely do it. Look at the list of swimmers in the 4x100 from 2012 here

Here's the French Prelims:

Amaury Leveaux (48.61)
Alain Bernard (48.31)
Clément Lefert (48.14)
Jeremy Stravius (48.32)

Here's the finals:

Amaury Leveaux (48.13)
Fabien Gilot (47.67)
Clément Lefert (47.39)
Yannick Agnel (46.74)

It's pretty standard in swimming to do it, since relays have the prelims and finals on the same day, unlike other events.

france and usa are cheating bros in the olympics

 

[crazyprac]

france and usa are cheating bros in the olympics

U forgot Australia

 

[Razzorn34]

not a biggie.

what's worse is the nonsensical amount of swimming events.

This. If they need to cut old events in favor of new ones, this would be the place to start.

 

[Lothar]

I didn't know about this before. But that's very cool. I thought it was bullshit yesterday when I heard that Phelps was replacing someone thinking the person he replaced wouldn't get a medal. This is good.

 

[Phased]

It's a swimming team, the team qualifies as a whole not the swimmer. I don't see a problem here.

If the US has such a strong roster that they can easily qualify with just their B team I think that's the bigger story here.

 

[Htown]

Guys did you know that basketball is a five vs five game, but all 12 players on the team get medals?

 

[LucidMomentum]

Put me in, coach.

 

[Wolfe]

"Reads title"

Ah, cause this is something only the USA knows about and utilizes correct?


Right??

...

 

[crazygambit]

If it only counts as one medal on the tally, I don't see a problem.

Well it's not a problem for Phelps since he actually swims in the finals, but if he's feeling tired he could swim the heats for some of the relays and then when the team gets the gold his tally of gold medals would just keep increasing.

He could conceivably do that in Tokyo 2020 and keep increasing his legend even if he wasn't in top form to compete. He has too much self respect to do that, but the fact it could be done is a little shitty.

 

[mclem]

The interesting thing in my eyes is that this means that they can't quite be sure how many medals they need to manufacture. Have they ever run out? "Here's your medal... here's your IOU"

 

[Chezzymann]

I mean, if you have people who are good enough to get you into the finals and can rest your main swimmers I don't have a problem with this. Gives teams with more depth the advantage

It's a swimming team, the team qualifies as a whole not the swimmer. I don't see a problem here.

If the US has such a strong roster that they can easily qualify with just their B team I think that's the bigger story here.

Yeah this.

 

[Spinoff90]

Assumed this was common knowledge? You will have a hard time finding any relay team in the finals that don't do this. Swimming events happen in such rapid succession that it is pretty much a necessity to do this to avoid swimmers having an individual event too close to a relay.

 

[giga]

I hear they also give medals to the twenty or so players on soccer teams. Swimmers hate them!

 

[AndyD]

Other countries can only do the same if they have an equally deep pool of relay swimmers, which is a pretty big ask. I must admit, it does seem unfair on reflection that the best possible hypothetical 4-person relay team could still not get Gold because they had to do two events. I feel like it would be pretty fair to restrict the relay team in the finals to the same time that swim in the preliminaries.

I sort of agree with this. A team is a team and like gymnastics they should have them all compete to see who makes it into the 4 (max 5 to allow for injury like soccer/basketball...) person team, then that team should actually compete in prelims and finals. No swapping the whole team at will.

 

[mm04]

You must be new to team sports. It's no different than football clubs resting some of their stars in early rounds of qualifying. Bench players get rewarded too. Shocking.

 

[Ruruja]

Isn't just the USA that do this.

This also happens in 4x100 and 4x400 races in Athletics.

You wouldn't see Usain Bolt in the 4x100 heats.

This isn't an issue.

 

[Korey]

Assumed this was common knowledge? You will have a hard time finding any relay team in the finals that don't do this. Swimming events happen in such rapid succession that it is pretty much a necessity to do this to avoid swimmers having an individual event too close to a relay.

Japan, who won the bronze in the 4x200(?) free relay, swam all 4 same people in the prelims/finals.

Other competitive countries typically field 5 total swimmers or at most 6. USA always does 7-8.

 

[cdyhybrid]

Deal with it, other countries. The gold medals are ours, you're lucky we even let you borrow them sometimes.

 

[Fury451]

As has been pointed out, this doesn't boost the overall tally, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

Also, every other country that competes in the events is essentially doubling their medal count anyways if you use the logic that the OP does, so doesn't it even out regardless?

 

[PSqueak]

Well, that makes sense, who would want to be the B-team guy who does half of Phelp's work and not get a medal?

If it was a team effort, it makes sense they all get medals.

 

[Kieli]

With this 1 WEIRD trick that you wouldn't believe, the OP gets the mods to change his thread title!

 

[platocplx]

I think this happens a lot in relay races. Especially when they know they can get qualifiers in early rounds.

 

[4Tran]

It's not too different from other sports where backup players are part of the team, but they still can get a medal even if they don't play. At least the swimmers contributed to the medal. The only unfair part of this is that it confers an advantage to stronger countries by allowing their best swimmer to rest before the final.

Do people know why ping pong double have three names on the team now. Is it following the same rule?

Table tennis doesn't have doubles as an event any more. It's been replaced with the team event, and there are three players on a team. These teams play (up to) 5 matches:

1. Player A plays a singles match.
2. Player B plays a singles match.
3. Players A and C play a doubles match.
4. Player B plays a singles match.
5. Player C plays a singles match.

 

[Korey]

Updated the OP with the results from the 4x100 medley relays (men and women). We won both, which means USA won gold in 5/6 relay events.

In both, we again used 4 B-team swimmers in the prelims, and 4 completely different people in the finals, which means that 16 Americans received gold medals instead of 8.

4×100 medley relay (men)

Prelims:

David Plummer,

Kevin Cordes,

Tom Shields,

Caeleb Dressel; Finals:

Ryan Murphy,

Cody Miller,

Michael Phelps,

Nathan Adrian


4×100 medley relay (women)

Prelims:

Olivia Smoliga,

Katie Meili,

Kelsi Worrell,

Abbey Weitzeil; Finals:

Kathleen Baker,

Lilly King,

Dana Vollmer,

Simone Manuel
​

 

[Elfforkusu]

It's a team event, so...?

 

[Futureman]

How much gold is in an actual gold medal? US is bankrupting the Olympics.

 

[hodayathink]

If I were going to argue any of this was unfair (which I wouldn't), I'd make an argument about the A Team racers getting to focus on their individual events while the B team races for them in the relays.