New rules announced today!
BBC
World swimming governing body Fina has moved to limit the impact of the controversial hi-tech swimsuits.
Last year saw an astonishing 108 world records broken, 79 of them by swimmers wearing one suit, the Speedo LZR Racer.
But following a three-day meeting in Dubai, Fina has stipulated swimsuits should not cover the neck and must not extend past the shoulders and ankles.
... opponents of the hi-tech suits argue the buoyancy they create amounts to "technological doping".
And matters came to a head in December when 17 world records tumbled at the European Short-Course Championships with the sight of swimmers squeezing into more than one suit in an attempt to compress their bodies and trap air for buoyancy dismaying many observers...
Article
The briefs only idea is clearly unfair to female swimmers and is also unenforceable at the Masters level.(I don't want any of the guys to volunteer to check to make sure the women aren't wearing a jogbra.)Since it is unenforceable I suggest the judges don't even try.We should say the spirit of the rules is to not wear 2 tech suits and that to do so is cheating,but just as we don't test for PEDs in Masters we shouldn't have,or need swimsuit police.
The briefs only idea is clearly unfair to female swimmers and is also unenforceable at the Masters level.(I don't want any of the guys to volunteer to check to make sure the women aren't wearing a jogbra.)Since it is unenforceable I suggest the judges don't even try.We should say the spirit of the rules is to not wear 2 tech suits and that to do so is cheating,but just as we don't test for PEDs in Masters we shouldn't have,or need swimsuit police.
Just got the answer.
6. Question: Does “one suit for competition” mean I can only wear one suit for the whole meet?
Answer: No. You can change suits during the meet, but you can only wear one suit at a time. This restriction applies only to the actual races (competition). You can wear more than one suit during warm-up and warm-down. This restriction applies to all types, makes, and models of swim suits, but it is not intended to apply to athletic supporters or modesty type wear (a single pair of “briefs” or “bikini bottoms or top” or a sports bra worn to ensure modesty and privacy).
This means Paul Smith can now wear his Saturday night wares under his tech suit.
The briefs only idea is clearly unfair to female swimmers and is also unenforceable at the Masters level.(I don't want any of the guys to volunteer to check to make sure the women aren't wearing a jogbra.)Since it is unenforceable I suggest the judges don't even try.We should say the spirit of the rules is to not wear 2 tech suits and that to do so is cheating,but just as we don't test for PEDs in Masters we shouldn't have,or need swimsuit police.
I don't understand why this is unenforceable in Masters. It is easy to see if another suit is underneath - whether high or low.
Here comes TYR Titan http://www.tyr.com/titan/
Interesting. How are features like this not considered performance enhancing?
"CORE CONTROL PANEL"
The internal panel stabilizes the swimmer for a more powerful and consistent stroke while helping to maintain optimal body positioning throughout the race.
I think it appears kind of sexist as well on the surface. However, do you think that what Fina is concerned about is the extra chest compression that a second suit would provide to females? I know they were concerned about duct tape use, but maybe they were concerned the modesty suit for females would be used more for compression or cover-up of other abuses like duct tape than for modesty.
I guess they had to draw the line somewhere, but it does appear sexist and more focused on the extreme.
For masters anything other than another tech suit should be allowed.
Tim
In the below posts, D2 makes a dead-on observation, and some are shooting him into the ground just because it is he who posted. He made really valid point: Humans were not made to swim.
Humans are land creatures -not aquatic or amphibious animals- and humans are basically not biologically designed to swim.
Your statement about your 28 years of swimming experience reflects how you've merely adapted your land-based biological characteristics to the aquatic environment rather than being created by nature for it.
You were in fact not biologically designed to swim otherwise you (and other humans) would be able to breath underwater through gills or have sufficient lung capacity and metabolism to remain submerged for an extended period of time with relatively infrequent surfacing to breath from the atmosphere.
Furthermore, I presume you do not have a streamlined body or fins and a tail like a fish, or web feet like a duck or an alligator otherwise you would be appearing on the Discovery Channel as the world's only "Amphibiometric Human".
This whole thing about multiple suits and modesty is somewhat ironic. The function of a swimsuit used to be modesty. You wore the smallest, tightest suit you could get away with and still cover the areas we've deemed as a society should be covered in public. Now, all of a sudden, with these new suits were covering up more of the body in order to swim faster, but we say we need to wear something else for modesty. It's strange I'll tell ya.
