BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A South African swimmer decided to become one of the 99 percent in his effort at attaining Olympic gold.

What he was referring to doing was breaking the rules. Cameron van der Burgh set a world record in winning a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke final on Sunday night, but admitted to using extra illegal kicks at the start of the race.

FINA is the federation that the International Olympic Committee uses to handle international competitions in swimming. CBS Chicago reports that according to their rules, breaststrokers are allowed only one kick at the start and after each turn in a race. But protests are not allowed because FINA does not use underwater or video technology.

The winner then turned his comments into somewhat of a professional wrestling promo. "It's not obviously the moral thing to do, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my personal performance and four years of hard work for someone that is willing to do it and get away with it,” said van der Burgh, according to USA Today.

“Everyone's pushing the rules and pushing the boundaries, so if you're not doing it, you're not trying hard enough," van der Burgh added. He said about 99 percent of competitors are doing the illegal kicks.

Van der Burgh’s manager said, according to WSJ.com, “Cameron has never been warned or disqualified at any meet for these alleged kicks and we have no other comments.”

According to van der Burgh, the underwater cameras were used at a World Cup event two years ago, and the dolphin kick was not attempted by anyone. “Everybody came up clean and we all had peace of mind that nobody was going to try,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “If they can bring it, it will better the sport.”