Recommendation from the USA Swimming Officials Committee

As you all know, USA Swimming has adopted FINA's interpretation of the freestyle portion of the medley events (relay and individual), often now referred to as the "Lochte Rule". Briefly, the rules state that a swimmer must swim 1/4th of the race butterfly, 1/4th backstroke, 1/4th breaststroke and 1/4th freestyle. 

In transitioning from breaststroke to freestyle in the individual medley and butterfly to freestyle in the medley relay, the swimmer must be past vertical toward the breast once s/he has left the wall/block. (You may recall that Lochte, at the 2015 World Championships, preferred to streamline past vertical toward his back as this was his fastest streamline. As such, he would streamline on his back for the first 15 meters of the freestyle portion of the medley.) Under this interpretation (or clarification), FINA determined that he should have been disqualified for swimming backstroke for more than 1/4 of his race.

The following guidance has been provided by the USA Swimming Officials Committee:

Pertaining to the freestyle portion of the medley events 
Determination of the body position during the freestyle portion of the medley events (individual and relay) should be judged in a similar manner to other body position calls. Namely, the shoulders must be at or past the vertical toward the breast when the swimmer leaves the wall. The judge should watch the swimmer’s feet leave the wall and then look up to gauge the relative position of the shoulders to one another. It is important to consciously think about the position of the shoulders from the point of observation – forward in time and not project back in time to where the shoulders might have been between the time the feet left the wall and the observation was made. As always, the benefit of any doubt goes to the swimmer. This is particularly true when the judge is observing more than one lane as it may be quite difficult to ascertain the position of the shoulders when observing from a different lane. 

Suggested language for the disqualification slip 
Use Miscellaneous-Other (7T) “Swimming more that ¼ of the race in the style of backstroke.”