Thanks for sharing that link Chris. Maybe there is still hope for business interests in our sport! Or, will we cut the flow off completely? Grown adults should be able to buy and race in any swimsuit they want! Anything less is unconstitutional!
Unconstitutional? Lets not get carried away. The rules of competition are governed by whatever body sanctions the competition. It has nothing to do with US law or politics.
In my opinion, the original FINA rules should have been interpreted to not allow most of the recent tech suits, because those suits are performance enhancing devices. Much like the Kitajima dolphin kick, the rules were bent as more and more swimmers pushed the limits with tech suits. Finally the backlash go to be too much and FINA specifically ruled against them. Right now it seems to us that the cat was out of the bag and maybe they waited too long, but only time will tell whether or not that is true. Maybe in hindsight this period will look like nothing more than a blip on the radar of swimming history. Personally I'm glad they put a stop to the ongoing slide toward wetsuits in the pool.
As for business interests and swimming popularity, I think the only reason swimming gets any press at all is because of the leftover excitement from the Olympics. Even that isn't much. This stuff seems very important to all of us, but the majority of people don't really care. I can sympathize with your desire to make swimming more popular, but I don't agree that tech suits are the best way to achieve that end. I think the rivalry between Phelps and Cavic is more the type of thing that gets people interested (close finish, trash talking, etc.), but again that could be just me since I actually follow the sport anyway.
Thanks for sharing that link Chris. Maybe there is still hope for business interests in our sport! Or, will we cut the flow off completely? Grown adults should be able to buy and race in any swimsuit they want! Anything less is unconstitutional!
Unconstitutional? Lets not get carried away. The rules of competition are governed by whatever body sanctions the competition. It has nothing to do with US law or politics.
In my opinion, the original FINA rules should have been interpreted to not allow most of the recent tech suits, because those suits are performance enhancing devices. Much like the Kitajima dolphin kick, the rules were bent as more and more swimmers pushed the limits with tech suits. Finally the backlash go to be too much and FINA specifically ruled against them. Right now it seems to us that the cat was out of the bag and maybe they waited too long, but only time will tell whether or not that is true. Maybe in hindsight this period will look like nothing more than a blip on the radar of swimming history. Personally I'm glad they put a stop to the ongoing slide toward wetsuits in the pool.
As for business interests and swimming popularity, I think the only reason swimming gets any press at all is because of the leftover excitement from the Olympics. Even that isn't much. This stuff seems very important to all of us, but the majority of people don't really care. I can sympathize with your desire to make swimming more popular, but I don't agree that tech suits are the best way to achieve that end. I think the rivalry between Phelps and Cavic is more the type of thing that gets people interested (close finish, trash talking, etc.), but again that could be just me since I actually follow the sport anyway.
