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British cycling gold medallist admits to crashing on purpose
At an Olympics marred by a match-throwing fiasco in badminton, it's probably not too wise to admit for a cyclist to crashing on purpose.
After the Great Britain cyclists repeated as gold medallists in the men's team sprint, Philip Hindes got all confessional. Amid the euphoria of winning a gold medal for the host country, the 19-year-old admitted to crashing deliberately so Team GB could get a restart. It strains credulity that he's the only track cyclist who has ever contemplated it, but some would wonder why this is ethically different than the badminton players who were banished from London 2012 for losing on purpose. Yet the IOC is doing nothing, saying "people were not deprived of a competition."
By "people" they mean spectators. So satisfying spectators > ethics.
From Justin Davis:
[Hindes] came close to sending Britain crashing out of the competition when his front wheel skidded only seconds after he left the start gate with Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy on his wheel.
The top two teams from the first round qualified for the gold medal match. And, facing the prospect of losing just a fraction of a second to his rivals with a slow start, Hindes decided on some remedial action.
"So I crashed, I did it on purpose just to get the restart, just to have the fastest ride. It was all planned really," said Hindes.
In track cycling the rules dictate that in the event of an early crash, teams can restart their race and the UCI, when contacted by AFP, said the result would stand.
At the world championships in Melbourne Hindes, however, was blamed for an infringement in the same event which led to Britain's relegation.
The 19-year-old said that, with so much at stake in the London Olympic velodrome, he had talked over such scenarios with the British team.
"When that happens you can lose so much time ... my only chance was to crash and get the restart," said Hindes, who admitted that neither Hoy nor Kenny had been fazed by his actions. (Velo News)
Here one thinks about how the Olympics' major timed sports, track, no longer allows competitors to get away with a false start because some sprinters went beyond simple gamesmanship with trying to jump the gun. In other words, a loophole was closed. In this case, Hindes took advantage of one.
Be that as it may, this isn't exactly like the badminton snafu. Another difference is the Chinese team which was the first to stop trying done so to increase their country's chances of winning two medals in the event. Hindes' tumble only affected one team's result.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
