Flipper Flap Grips Ga. Swim Club

A teenager’s use of a flipper on his prosthetic leg has churned up controversy in his swimming league, including the resignations of all the league’s board members and the threat of a federal lawsuit.

Parents of other children say Hunter Scott swims faster since he started strapping the flipper on his left leg. Hunter, an athletic and growing teenager, said it just helps his balance and doesn’t put other swimmers at a disadvantage.

“Without it, my body tends to roll in the water,” he said Thursday.

“I think it’s helped me out a lot, but not because it’s a propulsion device.”

A birth defect stopped development in Hunter’s thigh bone, and doctors had to remove his foot when he was 2. Now 14, he swims, plays baseball and hockey and lifts weights.

Hunter started using the flipper last summer, his eighth year in the Roswell River Rats swim club. De Kalb Atlanta Swim League officials say he’s about 4 seconds faster since using the flipper.

This summer, after a coach questioned the flipper, the league’s board decided such a device was not permitted by USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body. The league told Hunter he couldn’t use the flipper in competition.

Hunter’s parents threatened to sue the board and its members under the Americans With Disabilities Act and seek an injunction to halt divisional and championship competition.

The board decided to allow Hunter to use the flipper this year and will set rules on such equipment next spring.

Then, worried about future lawsuits and angered by the controversy, all 10 board members resigned.

Hunter used the flipper in the championships in July; he finished fifth in the 100-meter freestyle and ninth in the 50-meter butterfly.

“Last year, when he was losing, it was, ‘Oh your son is so inspirational,’ ” said his mother, Amanda. “And this year he started winning, and suddenly people had an issue with his leg.”

Hunter said his improvement came from weightlifting and growth, not the flipper.

USA Swimming’s rules for the disabled match those of the International Paralympic Committee, said Anneliese Eggert, secretary of the national group’s rules committee.

Disabled swimmers “compete with what they have. We don’t judge them on what they don’t have,” Eggert said.

“If you start allowing artificial means, then you’re opening it up to a kid who says, ‘I’m not as tall as this guy so I should be able to put flippers on.’ ”

Hunter, a ninth-grader, plans to try out for his high school’s swim team. The flipper has been approved by the Georgia High School Assn.

In the meantime, the Atlanta swim league, whose membership includes 3,000 children, is in limbo, former President Mike McCarter said.

It is operated by volunteers, and no one has stepped forward to run things since the board resigned.

The board has no liability protection against lawsuits, meaning members could have been responsible for any damage awards.

The league’s $7,000 bank balance wasn’t even enough to contest the threatened injunction, former board member Patty Levin said.

Sarah Money, a former board member and coach, said the flipper is now less important than the lawsuit threat.

“I don’t think anyone’s trying to pick on him because he’s handicapped,” Money said. “It’s just that when you threaten people, things get ugly.”