Beijing Brouhaha Building in Germany, Vipa Bernhardt Earns Court-Awarded Spot on Team Germany

BERLIN, Germany, July 15. ACCORDING to a report by Erik Kirschbaum of Reuters, Vipa Bernhardt has earned a court injunction forcing the German Olympic Committee (GOC) to add her to the Olympic roster.

Bernhardt, who placed third in the 200 breast at the German Trials, has been added to the team based on a legal technicality.

According to Kirschbaum's article, "German swimming federation rules allow participation in foreign college or school swimming teams but not foreign clubs. According to those rules, [Anne] Poleska should not have been allowed to swim at the German national championships."

Poleska has been training with the Coral Springs Swim Club, alongside the likes of Dara Torres and Leila Vaziri. Poleska denies ever swimming as a member of the Coral Springs Swim Club in Florida, although Bernhardt's representatives allege that Poleska competed for Corals Springs in 10 meets.

Losing Poleska would be a big loss for Germany as she took bronze in the 200 breast at the 2004 Athens Games with a time of 2:25.82. She finished behind Amanda Beard (2:23.37) and Leisel Jones (2:23.60).

German head coach Orjan Madsen does not see Poleska missing the roster though.

"The fact is that Anne was nominated by the [GOC] and already has her Olympic team clothes that she'll be traveling to Beijing in," he said.

Full text of Reuters article.

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