I am curious to see if the banning of tech suits will affect the motivation to compete in masters swimmers who are currently used to wearing these suits.
Obviously, much is in flux right now, but let us stipulate, for the sake of argument, that men are allowed briefs or jammers, and women are allowed leg-less tank suits of the yesteryear variety. Moreover, these must be made out of "normal" textiles--nothing all that fancy. Think spandex, nylon, or polyester. Think Speedo catalogs from the 1970s.
I have gotten used to my tech-suit aided times and am pretty sure that going 2 seconds slower per 100 is going to be psychologically, well, obnoxious. I am not yet sure if it will affect my meet participation, but I gotta say that it might. It's one thing to pay a ton of money to go to a national or even regional meet in the hopes of doing somewhere close to a lifetime best. It's another thing to attend such meets when you will be most likely swimming times more in keeping with your perceived sense of decrepitude and senescence! I know it was always psychological, a small white lie I was telling myself that I was still almost as fast at 56 as I was at 19.
But once the white lie is irrevocably gone, will I want to demonstrate its absence to myself over and over again?
For the truly top elite swimmers, who are racing against each other for bragging rights at the mountaintop of their respective age group, it may make less of a difference. But for some, like me, who were competing more against our own memories of our younger selves, the change might be harder to accept.
By the way, I am one of those who freely admit that tech suits have helped my times significantly.
While I really enjoy racing in my B70 and not having to shave, I got back into competing before owning one and definitely intend to go on competing. The suit might have made me a little faster, but I still swam meets even this year without it and I'm happy enough with my times to keep going. It would be a shame to lose anybody over this. Mel, you could always just not shave down...
While I really enjoy racing in my B70 and not having to shave, I got back into competing before owning one and definitely intend to go on competing. The suit might have made me a little faster, but I still swam meets even this year without it and I'm happy enough with my times to keep going. It would be a shame to lose anybody over this. Mel, you could always just not shave down...