The LZR suit - so 2008 - Photo Cytech CCA
The World Swimming Championships have followed a predictable pattern in Rome this week - after the tumbling records in last year’s Olympics, other companies have brought out bodysuits which are still fasster and more effective than the Speedo LZR - and, completely coincidentally, even more records have been broken, at a quicker rate than ever. People think it might have something to do with the suits.
Still, when we looked at the situation back in March we concluded the following:
Yes, people had their doubts about some of the issues surrounding the suit, such as US coach Mark Schubert, but since anyone could use it, it was by its nature fair in competition… [but] If FINA were serious they’d surely get all the swimmers back in the old-fashioned Speedo briefs and let them race the clock. That would eradicate any chance of ‘technological doping’, as some cynics have labelled it.
To our minds, that still holds true - the suits may be getting progressively sillier, but everyone has the right to wear whatever they like so long as it’s legal - it doesn’t bear comparison with motor-racing where constructors are building their own technology. Good to see that that has not produced any sour grapes, then. Well, apart from Michael Phelps’ coach, of course:
“I’m done with this. It has to be implemented immediately. The sport is in shambles right now and they better do something or they’re going to lose their guy who fills these seats,” he said.
“We’ve lost all the history of the sport. Does a 10-year-old boy in Baltimore want to break Paul Biedermann’s record? Is that going to make him join swimming?
“It took Michael from 2003 to 2008 to go from 1:46 to 1:42.9 and this guy’s done it in 11 months. That’s an amazing training program. I would love to know how that works.”
Biedermann clocked one minute 42.00 seconds, which beat Phelps’ world mark of 1:42.96 from the Beijing Olympics.
Wait a minute - we’re pretty sure that the reason most children want to “join swimming” is to be able to play in the pool in summer, but if we assume that he means encouraging those determined types who will grow to be seven feet tall and insanely good at swimming, then one suspects their motivation will be to be the best, and that will include beating whoever has the world record. Michael Phelps has probably done enough to be considered an icon of the sport, but if the 200m record isn’t is any more, so be it - surely he had an equal chance of achieving it?
Maybe Bowman should have a look at Biedermann’s training programme or something. It sounds awesome. Much better way of going than refusing to swim until the rules are changed.
Ah, the rule-changes. Well, FINA, the organisation responsible for this sort of thing, have decided something must be done, and from next year the costumes will have to conform.
The return to common textile suits, men in shorts and women in suits above the knee and to the shoulder strap, would mean world records would be almost impossible to better in the short term.
The World Swimming Federation’s decision at a conference in Rome came amid calls from a number of swimming federations for performance-enhancing suits to be banned.
However, the question of exactly how to define “allowable textiles” is unlikely to be determined until the next Fina bureau meeting in September or October.
Good pronouncement - make it in July and define it in September - classy - and unnecessarily vague.
Let’s hope FINA’s actions see a return to some common sense in the sport, and also discourage any more toy-throwing threats like Bowman’s. The records may have been tainted, but the competition is still earnest. And if you want the voice of reason, you need only listen to Paul Biedermann, the man no 10 year-old from Baltimore could ever aspire to supercede:
On the one hand, I want to say, yes it was only me. But on the other hand, I have to say, yes, it was also the suit. It was not only the suit, but it is a really big help. I feel no shame to swim (wearing) it, I feel proud to swim in it, but on the one hand, what (time) would you swim without the suit?
I think the suit is problematic. I think the suits make us swim really fast. I honestly think it was worth about two seconds in this race [the 400m freestyle, in which he also broke the record]. I really, really hope next year we can go back to the normal one, because it’s important for the sport. I think the suits destroy a little bit of the real sport. It’s not any more about technique; it’s not any more about good starts or turns; it is just, put this thing on and feel really, really fast in the water.
I really believe all the new suits should be banned.
