Hey, a questionable timing decision at the Olympics that has nothing to do with NBC! So, by now everyone has heard about Michael Phelps‘s one one-hundredth of a second victory over Milorad Cavic in last night’s (or this morning’s) 100 meter butterfly (it was soclose the Serbs filed an immediate protest). But you may not have seen it, since to the naked eye one one-hundredth of a second is nearly imperceptible — even the NBC announcer conceded that it appeared that Cavic had won. Well, turns out the Times graphics editor Joe Ward was hoping to take a closer look and went to the Omega Pavilion (Omega is the official timekeeper of the Games) immediately following the race to get an underwater pic of the finish. Ha. IOC/FINA craziness ensues.

When Joe returned to our office, he received an e-mail message from the spokeswoman. “Sorry but FINA decided not to release any timekeeping images to the media…We are not going to distribute footage. We are not doing these kinds of things. Everything is good. What are you going to do with the footage? See what the Serbians already saw? It is clarified for us beyond any doubt…He’s the winner in any way. He’s the winner no doubt. Even if you could see the pictures, I don’t know how you could use them.