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Katie Hoff and .07 of a Second
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Katie Hoff from the USA won the silver medal in the 400 meter freestyle. She swam a wonderful race and had the lead. Rebecca Adlington from Great Britain chased her down and won the gold medal.
It seemed, as the swimmers were approaching the wall, that Katie Hoff might have hung on to the lead and won the gold medal. Then, the underwater camera showed the shot the swimmers reaching out to touch the wall. Katie Hoff reached out and touched with the palm of her hand. Competitive swimmers are taught, from an early age, to reach out and touch with their finger tips.
It is a small detail. Would it have been the difference between the gold medal and the silver medal? Details…
Catherine Forsythe
One Comment
Ed
August 13th, 2008
at 6:41am
As horrible as it sounds, I don’t feel bad for Katie getting silver after that touch. The difference of a palm touch instead of a finger touch is over a few inches, which clearly would have made up a tenth of a second.
I’ve been a competitive swimmer since the age of 6, and swam for a major university. Touching the wall is a basic and fundamental element in swimming along with starts and turns. I have no doubt, Katie’s coach has pointed this out to her before, as my coach has drilled me in the past for poor wall touches as an age grouper.
As talented as Katie is, she is still young and doesn’t have the same experience as some of her competitors. Unfortunately it happened to cost her a gold medal at the Olympics.