He’s either a sore loser or an athlete with a legitimate claim.
Men’s marathon swimmer Jack Burnell is making international headlines after blasting Olympic referees for what he believes was unfair treatment during the 10-kilometre open water race on Tuesday.
In an interview with the BBC following the event in which he claimed fifth, Burnell said race officials ruined his Rio experience by issuing him a yellow card as the finish line approached.
“This is the pinnacle of our sport, the Olympic Games,” the 23-year-old from Great Britain said. “It’s supposed to be the grandest stage of them all with everything perfect, all this great scenery, and the one thing that ruins it is the referees.
“There’s 600 or however many boats out there, a ridiculous amount of boats — not needed — and every single person on the boat has no idea what they’re doing.”
Burnell crossed the line at one hour, 53 minutes and two seconds — roughly two seconds behind gold medallist Ferry Weertman, of the Netherlands, and Greece’s Spiros Gianniotis, who was forced to settle for silver after judges reviewed a photo finish.
Burnell’s performance in the Copacabana waters tied him for the bronze medal with two other swimmers. However, the feisty swimmer was demoted to fifth due to unnecessary contact.
“They’re giving yellow cards out left, right and centre for absolutely nothing, and then disqualifying people two metres from the end when there’s people grabbing hold of legs and everything,” Burnell continued.
“The whole thing was ridiculous, an absolute joke … In the end apparently I was disqualified, about two metres from finish. The first yellow card I got was coming down the straight back here — I was second, there was nobody either side of me, and the guy pulls out a yellow card! I couldn’t have physically touched anybody. The yellow card there is meant to be for unnecessary contact. What do you want me to do? I just shook my head at the guy.”
Canada’s Richard Weinberger, a bronze medallist in London four years ago, finished a disappointing 17th. He raced to a time of 1:53:16.4.