1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

Spring-board diving.800 met. team race.Water Polo.Ladies.100 met. free style.High plain diving from heights of 5 and 10 met.400 met. team race.DRAWING UP THE RULES AND REGULATIONS.In drawing up the rules for the swimming competitions of the FifthOlympiad, the Swimming Committee determined that the regulationsfixed by the International Swimming Federation should be those nowadopted. For the racing and water polo there existed rules thatcould be taken by the Committee, but no rules for diving competitionshad yet been fixed by the International Federation. As, however,the Federation, at its congress in Paris in 1909, had entrustedthe Swedish Swimming Association, among others, to draw up draftrules for such competitions, the question of rules for the OlympicDiving competitions could be arranged in fullest agreement withthe Federation. It was on the basis of the draft rules for divingwhich were laid before the congress of the Federation, in Brussels,in 1910, that the rules for the Olympic Diving competitions were drawnup and enforced.These rules were subsequently supplemented, at the time when thecompetitions were being arranged, by special “Instructions for Officials”,from which extracts were made for the competitors andprinted separately in English, French and German. These speciallyprinted leaflets also contained information for competitors, respectingsuch details of which special mention was not made in therules; such as, for example, the detailed principles fixing the methodto be adopted in their work by the judges of the diving, etc.As regards the elimination of the competitors before the finals, anumber of new principles were applied, in order that the competitionsmight be carried out with the greatest possible fairness. For example,in the races, the first and second men in each heat, and the “bestthird” of all the heats, were entitled to take part in the next roundor in the final. But, to prevent this rule necessitating the holdingof too many rounds, it was also determined, that if, in any heat inthe first round, not more than three competitors presented themselvesat the starting place, the starter was to let these three, or fewer,swimmers form part of the next heat whose numbers were not complete.In the 100 met. race, where the competitors were, as yet, unaccustomedto this system, the application of the rules occasionedsome difficulty, which was soon overcome, however.In the diving competitions the principle was adopted, that notonly should the winner in each trial heat be entitled to take part inthe final, but that other competitors who reached a certain numberof points should also be qualified to take part in the last round.714