TECHSUITS BANNED (again): AP article on FINA ruling

There is a wee bit of precedent in track and field- they altered the technical specs for men's javelin in the 1980s and women's javelin in the 1990s, in order to make it easier for the point to stick and for the judges to give a correct distance, and the result was an immediate 10%ish in distance thrown. The IAAF and national federations have kept separate lists of records and important throws under both the old and new javelins. But in general, I'd say to keep the current records swum in plastic. The swimmers were following the rulebook as it was written at the time, and there may have been any number of sub-national and national records broken in 08-09 in 2007 suit technology, and the idea of trying to sort out which from which would be a nightmare. People have gone on to break records after the invention of the 15M rule; they've broken the records of East German and Chinese dopers. It may take a couple years, but eventually they'll break the records of the plastic suit people too.

There is a wee bit of precedent in track and field- they altered the technical specs for men's javelin in the 1980s and women's javelin in the 1990s, in order to make it easier for the point to stick and for the judges to give a correct distance, and the result was an immediate 10%ish in distance thrown. The IAAF and national federations have kept separate lists of records and important throws under both the old and new javelins. But in general, I'd say to keep the current records swum in plastic. The swimmers were following the rulebook as it was written at the time, and there may have been any number of sub-national and national records broken in 08-09 in 2007 suit technology, and the idea of trying to sort out which from which would be a nightmare. People have gone on to break records after the invention of the 15M rule; they've broken the records of East German and Chinese dopers. It may take a couple years, but eventually they'll break the records of the plastic suit people too.