Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas dove -- or fell, depending on whom you’re asking -- across the finish line to beat the U.S.‘s Allyson Felix in the 400 meters by 0.07 seconds to win the gold medal in Rio on Monday night.
How Shaunae Miller beat Allyson Felix with a perfectly legal dive across the finish line
Shaunae Miller’s torso made it across the finish line first, and that’s why she beat Allyson Felix in the 400 meters.
It looked as if Felix had won in real time -- she did get her entire body across the finish line first, after all -- but Miller was declared the winner in the results. Why? Because Miller’s chest crossed the finish line first.
The International Association of Athletic Federations rulebook states: “The athletes shall be placed in the order in which any part of their bodies (i.e. torso, as distinguished from the head, neck, arms, legs, hands or feet) reached the vertical plane of the nearer edge of the finish line” (Rule 164, IAAF Rules 2006-2007).
So, it’s not that Miller’s extended hands crossed fist, it’s that her chest made it across the finish line before Felix’s.
A dive is legal, and this time it won a gold medal for Miller.
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