Andrew Gemmell and Fran Crippen officially earned the silver and bronze medal, respectively, in the men's 10K open water race at the FINA World Championships. The race took place on Wednesday, July 22, however, results were not finalized until today, following the decision made by the Jury D'Appel represented by the FINA Bureau.
The decision involved the finish of Crippen, which was protested by Italy and Greece. The Chief Judge initially validated the protest, but the United States successfully appealed to the Jury D'Appel, which ruled in favor of Crippen on Thursday.
"I'm extremely happy. It's a little bit weird, because you always want to win based on your performance and I thought I did that yesterday," said Crippen following the FINA ruling. "The last 20 hours have been extremely frustrating, but we were able to get through it. The appeal went in our favor today and we are all extremely happy because of that and because of our great day yesterday."
Gemmell, 18, finished second to champion Thomas Lurz of Germany. The medals for Gemmell and Crippen are the first World Championship medals for both swimmers, and mark the first time that two U.S. open water swimmers have finished in the top three in one event. The Open Water 10K was officially added to the Olympic program for the 2008 Olympic Games.
"I think it's great that we have such depth in U.S. open water," said U.S. Open Water Head Coach Catherine Vogt. "I think that this can really reach out to more kids out there, and let them know that this is attainable and there are a lot of ways to get here."
Open water action concludes on Saturday with the men's and women's 25K races. Emily Hanson (Bloomington, Ill.) and Eva Fabian (Keene, NH) will compete for the women, while Sean Ryan (Hixon, Tenn.) and Alex Meyer (Ithaca, NY) will represent the men's team.
Fran Crippen, 2009 10k Open Water Bronze Medalist, on what the U.S. finishes mean for the U.S. future in open water: "I think it means that we are improving. We haven't had this type of performance on the Worlds stage since 2005. I think we had a medal in 2007 but to have two guys in the top three was a very good showing yesterday. I think that our country is improving in open water. I think that we are the dominant country in swimming in general and it was my goal yesterday to carry that through for open water swimming."
Catherine Vogt, Head Coach U.S. Open Water Team on the team's performance so far: "This has been a really young team as it's the first World Championships for everyone. But there's been great leadership by Fran, he's been our captain, and we are really proud of how the team bonded together. We came in here and the boys and girls had a pretty good 5K and we made some adjustments and that really showed in the 10k with Andrew and Fran."
Catherine Vogt on Crippen's strategy in the 10K: "He [Fran] tried to conserve a little more energy and swim more efficiently with the pack. As soon as he was sure that he had that finish line in sight, he put his head down and went for it. He really came through."
Catherine Vogt on what this success means for Open Water in the U.S: "I think it's great that we have such depth in U.S. open water. I think that this can really reach out to more kids out there, and let them know that this is attainable and there are a lot of ways to get here."
Open Water Swimming at the 2009 World Championships: 21-25 July
