My feeling is FINA would have allowed full body suits if they felt confident they could limit the technology. I think they were afraid the suit companies would find loopholes to get around whatever specs were put in place. By limiting coverage it gives the manufacturers much less to work with in this regard.
I agree. I also wonder how expensive it was getting to do the testing, defend challenges from the manufacturers when their suits were left off the list, and just the general hassle and distraction. I would imagine that the additional testing and legal expenses might have influenced the decision a bit too. So, if no other organization allows tech suits other than masters swimming, who takes on the testing and approval burden? Or because it is only masters are we just going to trust the manufacturers and participants that their suits meet whatever guidelines USMS were to come up with? It just seems like you end up with allowing anything goes or following FINA.
Tim
My feeling is FINA would have allowed full body suits if they felt confident they could limit the technology. I think they were afraid the suit companies would find loopholes to get around whatever specs were put in place. By limiting coverage it gives the manufacturers much less to work with in this regard.
I agree. I also wonder how expensive it was getting to do the testing, defend challenges from the manufacturers when their suits were left off the list, and just the general hassle and distraction. I would imagine that the additional testing and legal expenses might have influenced the decision a bit too. So, if no other organization allows tech suits other than masters swimming, who takes on the testing and approval burden? Or because it is only masters are we just going to trust the manufacturers and participants that their suits meet whatever guidelines USMS were to come up with? It just seems like you end up with allowing anything goes or following FINA.
Tim
