Swimmers wearing Speedo’s high-tech suits helped rewrite the record books this year. Now the sport’s governing body is meeting to decide whether swimsuits should be better regulated.
FINA said Monday that it will take “appropriate action” when it meets March 12-14 in Dubai.
Members will get reports from a coaches forum next month in Singapore and a Feb. 20 meeting of suit manufacturers at FINA headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“FINA is looking for the collaboration of all the partners in this area so that final decisions can be globally accepted and fully understandable by the swimming worldwide community,” the federation said in a statement.
Any change in FINA rules could be in place for the world championships in Rome from July 18 to Aug. 2.
Tested by NASA and approved by FINA, the Speedo LZR Racer reduces drag with ultrasonically bonded seams and enhances buoyancy with a water-repellant fabric. Other suits, such as TYR’s Tracer Rise, use similar technology.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Olympics | Switzerland | Rome | Singapore | Beijing Games | Dubai | Croatia | Lausanne | USA Swimming | Speedo LZR Racer | Tracer Rise
The introduction of the LZR Racer in February has helped produce a surge of world-record swims.
•There have been 108 world records since Speedo’s suit became available.
•In the Beijing Games, 23 of the 25 world records set were by athletes wearing the LZR Racer.
•Sixteen world records were set this month in the European short-course championships in Croatia. Fifteen national teams signed a protest letter urging FINA to set better guidelines regulating the suits.
FINA was criticized for upholding the suit designs for the Olympics and not providing a clear definition of what’s an acceptable suit and a “device” that enhanced performance.
USA Swimming has petitioned the governing body, requesting that suits “shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor past the knee.”
Chuck Wielgus, executive director of USA Swimming, says the petition is “based on concern that these suits are buoyant. We want swimming competitions to be about the athletes, not the suits.”
He said restrictions on suits for U.S. 12-and-under age-group competitions have been adopted.
Swimming Australia joined the debate last week. It wants FINA to stop approving new suits and enforce a rule restricting swimmers to wear one suit at a time.
Some competitors have worn two and three suits in races to create a more streamlined body shape and prevent the stretched material from splitting.
THE coach who pressured Swimming Australia into instigating moves to ban the controversial fast-suits believes their request to FINA has "missed the point’’ and not gone far enough.
Forbes Carlile, former coach of Olympic champion Shane Gould, was recognised last week by Swimming Australia as the man whose "mounting evidence, scientific research and information’’ finally led to official action.
Swimming Australia last week asked FINA to cease the approval of any further fast-suits and ban the use of more than one fast-suit at any one time. The fast-suits have also been banned from junior competition in Australia.
However, Carlile claimed Swimming Australia’s move was "flawed’’. He said it would not change the opinion of many within the swimming community that the use of the suits was ``doping on a coathanger’’.
"I’m slightly pleased, but it’s moderate rapture,’’ Carlile told The Sunday Telegraph.
"What I mean by that is there are very definite flaws in their approach. There’s been no solution. We’re on the way, but it’s notenough.’’
From April next year, the fast-suits will not be allowed for any athletes under 18. But with 105 world records broken since February at the elite level, Carlile believes Swimming Australia is skirting the problem.
"All the trouble recently has been with elite swimming, not the age group swimmers,’’ Carlile said.
"I don’t think I’m unruly to suggest that the controversy around the suits has been because of the world’s best swimmers using them and the records that have followed.
"They’ve (Swimming Australia) missed the point.’’
Swimming Australia have also stated that men’s suits "must not extend above the waist or below the knees’’.
"But there is no mention of not having performance-aiding suits. No mention that the suits must go,’’ Carlile said. "The number one criterion is that they must not aid performance. Those suits should also be prohibited. Within the swimming world, it’s been called doping on a coathanger _ and that’s exactly what it is.
"It is pure expediency from FINA to ensure its $5-6million from the swimsuit companies that they’ve got into bed with. Like doping, the advantage of the suits is with those with access to the latest and most up-to-date technology.
"It’s not an even playing field.’’
Swimming Australia head coach Alan Thompson, also determined to preserve the sport’s credibility, said the impact of SA’s request to FINA would be determined at a meeting in March.
"I would support what FINA decides, but I don’t think we’re going to see ourselves go back to briefs and normal swimsuits for girls, I don’t think that is going to happen,’’ Thompson said. "We’ve got to look at what the materials are made of.
"I think those things need to be addressed, the flotation of the material and the buoyancy of the material needs to be addressed.’’
There is technology in every sport and the champion of the day is usually the one who first masters the new technology.
But most sports with smart administration will consider the ramifications of the technology the minute it comes onto the market and make a simple choice: permit or do not permit.
FINA have long been the most hopeless administration among the global sports, in my opinion (having first worked at an Olympic swimming trials in 1972 and plenty since).
You do not allow 109 world records and THEN decide whether you should permit the technology to be in your sport.
When John Carlos (and Lee Evans) ran with the brush spikes in 1968 (at the US Olympic Trials I believe) and ran what was then stupid fast times (was it 19.7h for 200m - breaking Tommie Smith’s WR by 0.3), the IAAF stepped straight in and refused to ratify the time as any kind of a record, much less a world record, because the federation felt the technology was going to distort the progress of the sport.
Now, the IAAF may have been wrong to ban the new spike technology, but they at least put the brakes on before the train became a runaway…and if nothing else it bought the sport times to reflect at length on the topic. FINA typically were left on the blocks - 40 years behind the IAAF.