Not sure if it's the suit, the Olympic year, or a combo of both - but I do get the impression that the LZR racer is the fastest suit out there. It's not yet available, but I am sure some people will pull some strings and show up with the suit in Austin.
I think we should all agree to ban the suit from Austin and spread the word to everybody. I know it's not binding - but I think we are all "old enough" to work on the honor system.
Any thoughts ?
www.nzherald.co.nz/.../story.cfm
Ban them all! Off with their heads!!!
What I find interesting in the article are the following:
-- David Pease categorically denied that there was any buoyancy advantage in these suits.
If that's the case, what is all this fuss about keeping them dry until the race? (It was advice I always ignored anyway.) Or is Pease saying this while winking at the audience, knowing that buoyant suits are against the rules?
-- Alan Thompson (head coach of the Austalian national team, who has a commercial agreement with Speedo) does not believe the suits are the main factor in the recent spate of world records. This happens to coincide with my own view, but again I wonder if he is winking at the audience.
-- Finally, my favorite: Cornel Marculescu, head of FINA, states that "there is no scientific test to say if a suit supports performance." It is unclear to me if he means that there HASN'T BEEN such a test or that such a test is not possible. But then later in the article we read about Arena's claim in the that their new suit is faster than their old one by HALF A SECOND in a 50m sprint. The advantage may be speed-dependent (ie, less at lower speeds, like Zipp wheels) but still, over a 400m swim that would be absolutely huge.
I don't consider myself a Luddite, but more and more I'm in the Jeff Commings camp...it wouldn't bother me AT ALL if they were all banned, then it would stop this endless madness.
But at least everyone's talking about suits and not PEDs, and that's a good thing, right? Hardly anyone seems to be talking about plain old fast swimming....
www.nzherald.co.nz/.../story.cfm
Ban them all! Off with their heads!!!
What I find interesting in the article are the following:
-- David Pease categorically denied that there was any buoyancy advantage in these suits.
If that's the case, what is all this fuss about keeping them dry until the race? (It was advice I always ignored anyway.) Or is Pease saying this while winking at the audience, knowing that buoyant suits are against the rules?
-- Alan Thompson (head coach of the Austalian national team, who has a commercial agreement with Speedo) does not believe the suits are the main factor in the recent spate of world records. This happens to coincide with my own view, but again I wonder if he is winking at the audience.
-- Finally, my favorite: Cornel Marculescu, head of FINA, states that "there is no scientific test to say if a suit supports performance." It is unclear to me if he means that there HASN'T BEEN such a test or that such a test is not possible. But then later in the article we read about Arena's claim in the that their new suit is faster than their old one by HALF A SECOND in a 50m sprint. The advantage may be speed-dependent (ie, less at lower speeds, like Zipp wheels) but still, over a 400m swim that would be absolutely huge.
I don't consider myself a Luddite, but more and more I'm in the Jeff Commings camp...it wouldn't bother me AT ALL if they were all banned, then it would stop this endless madness.
But at least everyone's talking about suits and not PEDs, and that's a good thing, right? Hardly anyone seems to be talking about plain old fast swimming....
