ACC Swimming Championship goes from horrible fiasco to beautiful lesson on sportsmanship

An unfair ruling disqualified a swimmer, his teammate was pure class when it was done.

NC State swimming Owen Lloyd was overjoyed. He’d just won the ACC Championship in the men’s 1650 yard freestyle, and when his teammate Ross Dant touched the wall second he jumped for joy, celebrating with this teammate — knowing the two would stand next to each other on the podium.

Then disaster struck. ACC officials informed Lloyd that because he jumped on the rope to celebrate and fell into his teammate’s lane, he would be disqualified for “interfering with another swimmer.” The ruling pulled Lloyd off the podium, handing the win to his teammate Dant.

When the dust settled Dant was FUMING that he was being given first place when he knew with every fiber of his being that Lloyd was the winner.

“I think that’s the dumbest rule in swimming. Owen beat me fair and square. He should be on that podium. He was excited. That’s a huge moment for him, right? He earned that. He earned that, and that’s his emotion. That’s what we get in the sport of swimming when we do well. We train all year for a moment like that, and to have him disqualified is the dumbest thing ever. He works so hard every day. HE is going to be on that No. 1 trophy. I am not going to stand up there.”

It remains unclear exactly how officials feel that Lloyd broke the rules. The folks at Swim Swam, a popular swimming blog, pulled up the ACC rules on the decision and it’s a little unclear how Lloyd actually violated the rules.

ARTICLE 1. a. Any competitor who interferes with another swimmer during a race shall be disqualified from that race, subject to the discretion of the referee.

The issue is that Lloyd didn’t interfere with another swimmer, because Dant had already finished as well. He also didn’t jump into the lane of another team, as the two are both teammates on the NC State swim team. There is nothing in the rules that addresses moving into the lane of an opponent who has finished competing, but while other swimmers were completing the race.

The result is still the same, as it stands Dant is the winner in the ACC’s eyes, and there’s been no mention of the decision by officials.

Clearly this ruling is stupid. Perhaps if he was taunting another school, or if the other swimmer took issue with it, then maybe there would be some justification here. However, when you have the second place swimmer, the one who officials claim was interfered with, and he’s saying “no, I wasn’t” while also slamming the ruling — maybe go back and revise the decision.

Kudos to Ross Dant for being a standup teammate and showing incredible class in the moment. Shame on the ACC for letting this happen.