A Strange Turn of Events

The scoreboard was taking too long to acknowledge the obvious -- Aaron Peirsol’s seemingly routine victory by almost 2 1/2 seconds in the 200-meter backstroke -- at the Olympic Aquatic Center.

Then came the three letters attached to his name -- DSQ -- that dramatically sped up the pace of the proceedings Thursday night. His former personal coach, Dave Salo, beamed himself down from the stands, and Peirsol’s anguished mother, Wella, and her husband, Tim Hartig, may have reached the pool deck even faster, sailing through the mixed zone of reporters to get there.

The alleged infraction was an illegal turn at the 150-meter mark. Ironically, Peirsol was the one who raised the level of scrutiny on the deck at this meet when he accused Japanese breaststroker Kosuke Kitajima of cheating by using an illegal kick.

“We did keep looking for a ‘just kidding’ to come up on the scoreboard, and it never showed up,” said U.S. men’s Coach Eddie Reese, who also was Peirsol’s coach at Texas.

The situation had all the makings of an extraordinary moment in modern swimming -- a world-record holder and world champion losing an Olympic gold medal because of a murky call.

About half an hour later, Peirsol had his gold medal back after the technical committee of FINA, the sport’s international governing body, reversed the original ruling. He stood on the medal podium with silver medalist Markus Rogan of Austria and bronze medalist Razvan Florea of Romania and listened to his national anthem. It was Peirsol’s second gold in Athens; he earlier won the 100 backstroke.

Long after the medal ceremony, his parents were visibly emotional, still in tears, as they held the wreath and flowers that their son received.

“The biggest thing is we waited for this moment, for him. They took this moment away,” said Wella in an interview near the warm-down pool.

Her husband agreed.

“That moment rips your heart out,” Tim said. “It’s a long, long road from childhood dreams to this.”

The 21-year-old Peirsol, who grew up in Orange County and went to Newport Harbor High, appeared to be the calmest presence on the deck. He held up his arms in disbelief when the disqualification hit the scoreboard, as did Rogan, who was briefly elevated to first. But Peirsol always seemed confident the decision would be reversed.

“Tonight was weird, twisted,” said Peirsol, who won in 1 minute 54.95 seconds, an Olympic record. “A little interesting. But it came out all right.”

But apparently, the matter isn’t closed. British swimming officials were said to be planning to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on behalf of James Goddard, who would have received a bronze medal had the disqualification stood.

CAS, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, sets up ad hoc divisions during the Olympics, and heard 15 cases in 2000 at Sydney. It typically hears doping-related cases.

FINA issued two statements on the Peirsol case and said it planned another today. The rationale behind the reversal was strangely worded: “The DSQ of the swimmer in Lane 4, Aaron Peirsol, was not accepted due to the detail of the reason supplied by the official being inadequate and not in the working language of FINA.”

Two protests followed, one by Britain and another by Austria, and both were rejected by the FINA jury of appeal. All this led the Peirsol camp to believe he was in the clear, and in the news conference he faced a series of questions about whether this was payback for his criticism of Kitajima.

After Peirsol’s accusations, the judges starting tossing swimmers out of the breaststroke for infractions, including one for an illegal kick in the final of the 200 breaststroke Wednesday.

But Peirsol didn’t back off about the criticism of Kitajima’s technique.

“I’m not here to bash anybody,” he said. “I’m staying with what I said. I know what I saw. I know what the rest of the field saw.... This is turning into one hell of a drama thing. It’s just too weird.”

His parents didn’t want to think that it was prompted by the Kitajima matter. They spoke about their anxiety just after the disqualification. Wella was so upset she needed brief attention from the team doctor, Tim said. Before that, they made a dash from the stands down to the pool deck, a fairly impressive feat given the supposedly increased level of security here.

“There was no way I wasn’t going be down there for Aaron if something bad was going to happen,” Wella said. “What mom wouldn’t do that?”

Said Tim: “Wella, being the tiger she is, got us down there. You wouldn’t want to be in the way.”

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Undisputed victories

While Aaron Peirsol was having a rough ride at the Olympic pool Thursday, it was smooth sailing for three of his teammates:

MICHAEL PHELPS

Gold, 200 IM

* Phelps won in an Olympic record 1:57.14, his third individual gold. He’s still on course to match the record of eight medals.

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AMANDA BEARD

Gold, 200 Breaststroke

* Beard won her race in an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes 23.37 seconds -- 0.23 of a second better than Australian Leisel Jones.

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NATALIE COUGHLIN

Bronze, 100 Freestyle

* Coughlin’s first Olympics has been a medal bonanza. She picked up her fourth medal of these Games with the bronze in this event.

Los Angeles Times