You spend four years working to earn a trip to the Olympic Games, and in an instant the dream of winning a medal dies because you had a false start during your preliminary heat. That’s a fear many athletes in sports such as swimming and track and field face, as you don’t get another chances to make amends for a false start. Saturday morning during his heat of the 400 meter freestyle competition, Spain’s Miguel Duran Navia left the pool in tears after believing that he’d been disqualified for a false start.
Just one problem with this assumption, but it was a good problem: Duran Navia had been mistaken in his assumption.