'Current' Anomaly Gave 2016 Olympic Swimmers An Unfair Disadvantage, Experts Says

Experts are suggesting that pool lanes gave an unfair disadvantage to swimmers competing in the Olympics. A research conducted by experts from the Aquatic Science Center at Indiana University on the 2013 Barcelona Olympics suggests that current from the pool favored some lanes by disadvantaging others, as repoted by Deadspin.

The anomaly was first noticed back then in Barcelona Olympics when the researchers compared the overwhelming medals obtained by swimmers from lane 8 and the consistent losers who swam in lane 1. When this "current" issue surfaced, several Olympic teams protested however, even the researchers of the study has no way to confirm the incident. In a sport like swimming where margins between winners and losers are just split seconds, it is very hard to verify the said anomaly.

According to an analysis from Swimswam in the recently conducted swimming event in Rio Olympics, the "current" anomaly has a sparing coincidence. Lanes 8 to 5 produced more medalists than lane 1-4. The researchers speculated that the current might be caused by the substandard construction of the swimming pools. Coincidentally, the contractor who built the pool in the Barcelona Olympics also constructed the swimming pool used in the recently conducted Rio Olympics swimming event.

The contractor, Martha Pools USA denied the allegations. Trevor Tiffany, Chairman of Martha Pools said that they complied with all the specifications of the International Olympic Committee in building the swimming facility.

"We were required to do tests to show that there was no movement of water, and the tests were conclusive that there was no movement of water. If any current had been detected, obviously it would have been of concern to us and of concern to FINA," Tiffany said in an  Wall Street Journal report.

Officials of FINA, the international ruling body in swimming, together with the contractor Martha Pools USA, said that they will conduct an investigation in the said issue. Martha Pools will also rerun the tests using a more sophisticated device to finally put the issue to an end.