www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../19679.asp
The most substantial change, of course, is that suits would no longer be allowed to extend past the knee.
My personal opinion is this is sort of an arbitrary change. What really should be changed--if anything--is what types of materials are allowed and maybe testing protocol to approve a suit. I don't really think requiring suits to end at the knees would affect much.
Parents
Former Member
Hey Aquageek - no one is saying you can't spend the money for those suits for your kids if you want to. They just can't use them in USA-S sanctioned meets. So please go ahead and buy those suits. Your kids can wear them when they train or when they want to swim fast in the lake or ocean.
Who are you to tell USA-S what they allow in their sanctioned competition?
I believe there are sound reasons to carefully manage the cost to participate in the sport of swimming. If a kid is .05 away from a AAA time - tough. They didn't make it. Aquageek - you - the least apologetic person here - should appreciate that the child can get over it. They didn't make it. They should have swum faster. As long as they weren't disadvantaged versus other kids - it was fair.
USA-S has programs to assist families who have financial difficulty. Unless they want to extend this program to equipment like suits - I say outlaw the advanced ($$$) suits for younger kids. 12 year olds that are super fast and capable of national meets (like Jr. Nationals) have clearly made a different kind of commitment to the sport and should be allowed to wear whatever they want in national competitions.
Hey Aquageek - no one is saying you can't spend the money for those suits for your kids if you want to. They just can't use them in USA-S sanctioned meets. So please go ahead and buy those suits. Your kids can wear them when they train or when they want to swim fast in the lake or ocean.
Who are you to tell USA-S what they allow in their sanctioned competition?
I believe there are sound reasons to carefully manage the cost to participate in the sport of swimming. If a kid is .05 away from a AAA time - tough. They didn't make it. Aquageek - you - the least apologetic person here - should appreciate that the child can get over it. They didn't make it. They should have swum faster. As long as they weren't disadvantaged versus other kids - it was fair.
USA-S has programs to assist families who have financial difficulty. Unless they want to extend this program to equipment like suits - I say outlaw the advanced ($$$) suits for younger kids. 12 year olds that are super fast and capable of national meets (like Jr. Nationals) have clearly made a different kind of commitment to the sport and should be allowed to wear whatever they want in national competitions.
