So is my B70 Illegal now?

Allen, Could you please have your generally reliable sources forward to me any communications they have received from FINA substantiating their claim? I have not received any such communiqué and to the best of my knowledge neither has any other member of the United States Aquatics Sports leadership. Thanks! I just emailed her and await a reply.

I heard from 2 different people(at least one of them is a generally reliable source) at our meet today that FINA plans to not allow WR submissions from national governing bodies(in our case USMS) that are not in compliance with their rules.If this is true our stance has to change. That would indeed be terrible for some of our forumites. I heard today that Blue Seventy is suing FINA, and it appears to be true. E.g., www.telegraph.co.uk/.../FINA-face-court-over-swimwear-testing-policy.html Here's a good quote from another article: "I find myself lining up on the blocks looking down the line at swimmers wearing a suit of such body shaping success that has over 100 world records, yet my New Zealand designed blueseventy with a history of only five world records is deemed illegal." I've said this many times. The most performance enhancing suit is legal while the durable non-Speedo suit is illegal ...

speedo pays more world record setting swimmers to wear their suits.... to claim that it is a faster suit than the b70 is not exactly proven. True. However, the people/kids I know using/having used both LZRs and B70s think the LZR is faster and prefer it. I used a LZR with 15 swims in (and thus technically expired and stretched beyond usefulness in LZR parlance) at Zones. I swam slightly faster in that than in the exact same race in a B70. And I spent less time underwater in my LZR (hence slower for me). It could depend on a person's body type as to which suit is fastest for them, I guess.

Here's a good quote from another article: "I find myself lining up on the blocks looking down the line at swimmers wearing a suit of such body shaping success that has over 100 world records, yet my New Zealand designed blueseventy with a history of only five world records is deemed illegal." QUOTE] speedo pays more world record setting swimmers to wear their suits.... to claim that it is a faster suit than the b70 is not exactly proven.

As a bonus, it would be ideal if USMS could then get clear agreement with FINA as to how they are going to manage WRs and World Top Ten this summer. On the one hand, I can see FINA saying that they'd reject US times because USMS has not abided by their approved list. On the other hand, since meet results (at least now) don't record each swimmer's suit, I think swimmers have a legitimate reason to state that any time swum in a sanctioned meet should count. I follow Patrick here since I can not imagine how FINA is going to police these submitted LC times - from any country. The LC season has started with several meets already passed. Swimmers racing in any suit of their choosing. The only things I saw an official act on this past weekend at a meet in regard to a suit was: Give a warning/bewares about wearing a modesty suit under a B70 (Nero) and To a swimmer wearing 2 very baggie drag suits- one on top of the other. How will FINA be able to accept some times and not others? Seems like either a year of records will have to be wiped out or a solid and legal ruling will have to be enforced and policed from a date yet in the future. (there are way too many different threads going on this forum about suits now...)

I follow Patrick here since I can not imagine how FINA is going to police these submitted LC times - from any country. The LC season has started with several meets already passed. Swimmers racing in any suit of their choosing. The only things I saw an official act on this past weekend at a meet in regard to a suit was: Give a warning/bewares about wearing a modesty suit under a B70 (Nero) and To a swimmer wearing 2 very baggie drag suits- one on top of the other. How will FINA be able to accept some times and not others? Seems like either a year of records will have to be wiped out or a solid and legal ruling will have to be enforced and policed from a date yet in the future. (there are way too many different threads going on this forum about suits now...) They can't really police compliance, Ahelee. But they could refuse to accept ANY times from countries that didn't follow the initial approval list from the date the list was issued until the date the countries officially reverse their position and announce their compliance. If B70 is not on the June 19 list and USMS reverses policy quickly, that would only be a matter of a couple months perhaps. This would obviously punish swimmers from non-complying countries that are actually complying with the FINA list during this period. I'm really wondering if FINA will cave and put B70 back on the list until the end of the year, or if USMS will tell FINA to pound sand or cave to a non-B70 list? I guess USMS might be in good company with other non-complying countries. Didn't Germany and Japan also decline to adopt the FINA list?

B70 for TRI's not the pool?!

I've said this many times. The most performance enhancing suit is legal while the durable non-Speedo suit is illegal ... Speedo(high priced escort) + FINA(high priced client)= bed buddies

They can't really police compliance, Ahelee. But they could refuse to accept ANY times from countries that didn't follow the initial approval list from the date the list was issued until the date the countries officially reverse their position and announce their compliance. If B70 is not on the June 19 list and USMS reverses policy quickly, that would only be a matter of a couple months perhaps. This would obviously punish swimmers from non-complying countries that are actually complying with the FINA list during this period. I'm really wondering if FINA will cave and put B70 back on the list until the end of the year, or if USMS will tell FINA to pound sand or cave to a non-B70 list? I guess USMS might be in good company with other non-complying countries. Didn't Germany and Japan also decline to adopt the FINA list? Wettkampfbestimmungen Fachteile Schwimmen und Masterssport gelten damit unverändert weiter wie die FINA Regel GR 5. Das bedeutet, dass die jeweils aktuelle Positivliste der Schwimmanzüge der FINA nicht für Wettkampfveranstaltungen der Masters im DSV zu beachten ist. www.dsv.de/DesktopDefault.aspx German master swimming verband allows swimmers to use whatever suit they have for now.

As everybody has already said - the current WR application does not indicate what suit the swimmer was wearing at the time of the swim (it indicates things like bulkheads, # of touch pads, birth cert on file, etc.). But what if it came down to a simple honesty policy for the interim until which time the form gets changed (if it does get changed)? Meaning what if the Top Ten Recorder or Meet Director (whoever submits the record application) has to contact the swimmer to ask them what suit they wore? I realize this is somewhat of an administrative mess but it's not like we are talking about 100s of records. I would *hope* swimmers won't lie - particularly because they realize their swims were most likely witnessed. And if somebody does lie and their time gets recorded, well, even though they may *win* the record they will surely lose in the court of public (forums) opinion!