Diving in Rio

[Gullscorer]

On the running track, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas has won the gold medal in the Women's 400m Final by diving over the finish line, beating the USA's 2012 Olympic champion into second place!

What..??!! Why on earth is diving allowed in a foot race..??

This is akin to anticipating the starting pistol, thereby causing a false start. Diving causes a false finish. It must be banned as soon as possible, otherwise we'll be seeing all athletes in all the running events diving over the finishing line.

And why wouldn't they, if it means the difference between winning and losing?

Stop it now.

[PhilGull]

Put your glasses on a take another look, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/36689787.
She didn't dive, she fell. And was lucky to win - if anything 'diving' over the line would slow you down.

[Gullscorer]

I’ve seen the video. The dive didn't slow her down - at least, not until she hit the ground. And it didn’t look like a fall to me. Nor to many observers.

This is the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/o ... ge%2Fstory

This is the Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/ri ... qtisk.html

And this from the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/ ... story.html

I will concede that it might have been a lunge rather than a dive. Which is just as bad. It’s still cheating, or should be regarded as such, and should be banned.

[Southampton Gull]

She definitely dived

[madgull]

Wait, what? Lunging/dipping for the finish line is standard practice in races. At what point does it become a dive? 45 degrees? Horizontal? You could argue that being able to lean forward gives a tangible advantage to the taller athletes, a much more tangible advantage than falling over the finish line - as PhilGull says, it would slow you down, not make you quicker. Shall we make sure that athletes don't lean forward?

In all seriousness, I think a far bigger issue is the way the start is done. Why not have a countdown rather than simply waiting for the pistol? It's supposed to be a test of SPEED, not your reactions, and the start makes a huge difference.

[Southampton Gull]

She was out of sychronisation when she dived

Good point about the starts, would help with false ones for sure.

[Gullscorer]

There will always be somebody shooting off too early..

[Gullscorer]

Which reminds me: I hear the Somalia team in Rio have just apologised. They didn't know that Shooting and Sailing are two different events in the Olympics..