Hello, friends,
I've been wondering where to post this message, so I might as well start here.
There is a lot of talk about records broken in the tech suit era and some people want asterisks on those records.
But no one talks about the suit which Thorpe wore in the 2000 Olympics. It sure looks like a wetsuit to me:
media.olympics.com.au/.../20100707_101809625_ian_thorpe_wins_400m_20001.jpg
Why aren't his victories and records tainted by the use of this suit?
Does the rule change about suits help explain why he was unsuccessful in his comeback attempt?
Any thoughts?
Maybe backstroke flags were like touch pads and other equipment, only available at big meets early on, trickling down further as time went on. They represent and obvious safety improvement and are pretty cheap, so every pool eventually got them. In contrast, even today, many swim meets are still hand timed at the lower levels because of the expense of electronic timing systems (and low cost and sheer abundance of volunteer parental units armed with stopwatches).
Maybe backstroke flags were like touch pads and other equipment, only available at big meets early on, trickling down further as time went on. They represent and obvious safety improvement and are pretty cheap, so every pool eventually got them. In contrast, even today, many swim meets are still hand timed at the lower levels because of the expense of electronic timing systems (and low cost and sheer abundance of volunteer parental units armed with stopwatches).
