Shaunae Miller dove to beat out Allyson Felix and the Internet is not happy

When Shauane Miller threw herself across the finish line to win the gold medal in the women’s 400-meter finals Monday night at the Rio Olympics, she made a decision that does not always work out.

The runner whose torso crosses the finish line first, as the Bahamian runner’s did to beat American Allyson Felix, gets the win, and so runners will occasionally dive to the finish line in hopes of edging out their opponents.

But as Olympic sprinter Lolo Jones explained on Twitter, diving doesn’t always benefit the runner.

Yet that explanation, and the fact that diving constitutes a perfectly legal tactic in track, and has happened often in elite competition, was not enough to quell the Internet backlash against Miller, who some saw as going against the integrity of the sport.

As Jones points out, most professional runners — both men and women — have used the dive. It happened in the 1,500-meter finals at the 2011 U.S. outdoor track and field championships when Andrew Wheating finished fourth and missed the automatic qualifying mark for the world championships. It happened this year at the U.S. Olympic Trials when Brenda Martinez claimed the third and final 1,500-meter qualifying spot to punch her ticket to Rio.

At the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, Bershawn Jackson’s body was horizontal by the time he crossed the finish line in the 400-meter hurdles final. He missed qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics by .05 seconds.

Jeff Porter, who ran the 110-meter hurdles at the same race dove for third and said he “dug deep” and had planned to dive if the race was close.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time Felix was on the receiving end of a dive this year. Jenna Prandini dove to beat out Felix by .01 seconds in the 200-meter finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Perhaps what was jarring to viewers was that Miller’s dive, unlike those by Wheating, Martinez or Porter, came further behind the finish line and happened in a much higher profile race. But as Jones notes, “Miller didn’t cheat Allyson, she won fair.”