In other news, U.S. Masters Swimming released the following statement regarding the impact of the FINA ruling on Masters in the U.S.
While FINA has listed the 202 approved swimsuits, FINA has NOT listed the 10 suits that have been "rejected for not passing the tests of buoyancy and/or thickness" or made a ruling on the "136 swimsuits to be modified in accordance with "Dubai Charter". Until FINA provides the definitive list of banned swimsuits and specific actions on the 136, we should not report any suit as banned in a USMS sanctioned event.
With FINA's policy of not releasing banned suit information, Masters swimers in the U.S. will likely be swimming in whatever suit they want until further notice.
I don't appreciate the fact that a suit I just bought (B70 leggings) is banned, when I expected that it would be good thru Dec 31.
Moreover I agree that the reason for banning ("failing to approve" or whatever) sounds pretty flimsy, especially for leggings. And I believe B70 also submitted jammers?
It sucks for B70 and for swimmers as consumers, since it is a durable suit that is cheaper than the (apparently) comparable Speedo suits.
I'm not going to assume Speedo is behind this unless there is strong evidence of that. I think there has been a bias against B70 (see: Craig Lord) and similar companies due to their history as a "wetsuit" company, and the similarity of the suits to wetsuits.
Having said all that...I really hope USMS toes the line and only allows FINA-accepted suits from here on out. Or at the very least follows USA-S in whatever it decides to do.
And work with FINA to straighten out this mess (eg, use quantifiable, objective and transparent criteria; explain the status of "legacy" suits like nylon suits; etc) as necessary.
In other news, U.S. Masters Swimming released the following statement regarding the impact of the FINA ruling on Masters in the U.S.
While FINA has listed the 202 approved swimsuits, FINA has NOT listed the 10 suits that have been "rejected for not passing the tests of buoyancy and/or thickness" or made a ruling on the "136 swimsuits to be modified in accordance with "Dubai Charter". Until FINA provides the definitive list of banned swimsuits and specific actions on the 136, we should not report any suit as banned in a USMS sanctioned event.
With FINA's policy of not releasing banned suit information, Masters swimers in the U.S. will likely be swimming in whatever suit they want until further notice.
I don't appreciate the fact that a suit I just bought (B70 leggings) is banned, when I expected that it would be good thru Dec 31.
Moreover I agree that the reason for banning ("failing to approve" or whatever) sounds pretty flimsy, especially for leggings. And I believe B70 also submitted jammers?
It sucks for B70 and for swimmers as consumers, since it is a durable suit that is cheaper than the (apparently) comparable Speedo suits.
I'm not going to assume Speedo is behind this unless there is strong evidence of that. I think there has been a bias against B70 (see: Craig Lord) and similar companies due to their history as a "wetsuit" company, and the similarity of the suits to wetsuits.
Having said all that...I really hope USMS toes the line and only allows FINA-accepted suits from here on out. Or at the very least follows USA-S in whatever it decides to do.
And work with FINA to straighten out this mess (eg, use quantifiable, objective and transparent criteria; explain the status of "legacy" suits like nylon suits; etc) as necessary.
