At one point track & field, manufacturers came out with spiked shoes. People with spiked shoes went faster. Athletes could choose to wear them or not.
And then facilities managers discovered that long track spikes tended to shred typical composite tracks, and it became common to tightly regulate spike length in order to preserve the track surface. The place my high school team usually competed at had a standard that the spike couldn't protrude from the shoe more than two quarters taped together and placed flat against the sole.
The $500 golf club will last for years, and can frequently be found on the secondary market for a reduced price. (Same with many other high ticket sporting equipment items. Play it Again Sports survives in many areas by recycling youth hockey gear) The same cannot be said for a suit you'll be lucky to get through a meet without tearing.
And cycling commonly rolls back UCI bike construction rules to more conservative standards. They've effectively killed the beam bike in the last five years.
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 think you grossly overestimate the foresight and thinking of FINA.
But to anyone who is the least bit competitive but doesn't like the suits, the situation of "anything goes" lessens their enjoyment of the sport a little bit. I would argue that it does so to a roughly comparable extent as the situation where the pro-techies were forced to give up their suits and wear older suits.
Very well said, Chris. And as a person who doesn't like the newest in tech suits you said what I've been thinking for a while.
I was just wondering,if USMS OKs full body suits,but fabric only so no current B-70 etc. who is going to make them?B-70s last a long time but lycra suits don't.In 07 I saw a guy at a meet in a full body suit so old it was nearly transparent in the wrong spots.I'd hate to see a situation where lots of swimmers were trying to get "one last swim " out of their irreplaceable suit.It could get ugly.
I know of at least one person who told me (unprompted) that she wasn't going to nationals this year because she didn't want to buy one of the suits but her competitors would all be wearing them.
It does no good to pooh-pooh this person as a luddite or an "overly serious" swimmer who should just get over it. You can make similar rebuttals to tech-suit lovers as people who just want to just buy their speed and tell them they are "overly serious" and should just get over it. Both arguments have some elements of truth but are largely unfair.
-- I have to think that, for "purity of sport reasons" that there has to be reasonably strong arguments in favor of the suits for USMS to go its own way (throwing in an element of Kant here).
I wouldn't necessarily think the swimmer who skipped nationals was a luddite, though that could be the case I suppose. She sounds like a poor sport. There were plenty of people at nationals who didn't wear what you anti-tech suit types like to refer to as "rubber" suits. National champions even -- e.g., Michelina. Going to nationals isn't just about wearing the fastest suit. It's more of an overall "swim experience." At least for me. I could wear my fast suit and possibly swim a faster time staying home and swimming at a fast local pool.
I had a chance to do some wetsuit shopping on vacation, BTW. I don't see how a B70 swim skin bears any resemblance to those suckers. Wetsuits that are 5 mm thick don't look or feel even remotely the same.
I hate Kant. :)
two thumbs down from me, but more so for wetsuits which dramatically change the nature of the sport
OW swimming and the wet suit issue are just as heated as the tech suit issue in the pool it seems. The wet suit issue can easily be solved based on the temperature reading at the time of competition. At the recent World Police and Fire Games in Vancouver, wet suits were mandatory if the water was below 70 degrees. I think that 70 is too high for wet suits personally, but you get the idea. Maybe under 62 degrees for USMS OW events. Anything above; wet suits come off. ?? The WP article brought about some good points I hadn't considered. But for now, I say thumbs down too.
Take speed skating, the klap-skates have created a record breaking revolution on ice much the way the tech suits have in the pool. Klap skates are here to stay but they have not created less drag the way the tech suits have for swimmers. Many of the same arguments against the tech suits are echoing the arguments against the klap skates. Just a little sports trivia for you....
Just a question,anyone out there who was against wetsuits for OW but OK with tech suits for pool?If so what is your rational?
two thumbs down from me, but more so for wetsuits which dramatically change the nature of the sport
