. In a competition I think you should care what your competitors are doing.
I disagree here. I don't care what you or anyone else does that is in my heat. I can only control how I swim and I only care about how I swim.
It's all well and good to say you don't care what competitors are doing, but it is a competition, and the competition should be fair. There are already rules prohibiting performance enhancing devices, flotation, etc. The controversy was caused by those rules not being enforced, plain and simple.
It all started with Thorpe and his full-length bodysuits. Then we had the Lazers in Beijing. Now it's polyurethane. Next year it will probably be suits with little ridges and dorsal fins on them. Hell, why not just go to full-on wetsuits? The whole controversy is pretty stupid if you ask me. Obviously the suits are a form of cheating. It should be no surprise to anyone that we have arrived at this point.
I agree with Rowdy and others who say that now Pandora's box is open and there is no good solution. It's a mess.
Rowdy's 8 general swimming reasons are irrelevant, that ship has sailed. FINA banned the suits and USS, NCAA and high school followed very quickly.
The political winds will shift when we discover there is way less financial support given to the next generation of athletes because the swim suit manufacturers are broke.
I totally care about what my competitors are doing. How could you not care? It is the nature of sports to care.
I use to care what the people I raced against did in the events. I don't care anymore. Not caring about anyone else in the race has made swimming tons better because I am the only person that I have to worry about in the event.
Going to meets allows me to 1) Get the out of town for the weekend, since there are no meets in my town for masters. 2) Spend time with friends and watch them race 3) Get to swim in a lot better pools than I practice 4) Put my practice/training to a test to see how it is going and what I can do better. I go to meets to see how I am doing. That is what gets me pumped to swim, to compete against myself, not others. I don't get excited to race others, just me.
I second everything Chris says above.
As to the argument about FINA's edict putting swimming behind other sports in term of disallowing technological advances, I think swimming is different than other sports commonly cited (tennis, golf, NASCAR, etc.). Swimming has always been about the swimmer's interaction with the water. We don't NEED suits to compete, only for modesty. In tennis, golf, and NASCAR, there is no sport without the racket, club, or car. Therefore, technological advances in the equipment one needs to compete are natural. In swimming, technological advances in the equipment we do need to compete (like pool construction and lane ropes) are a natural part of the sport in the same way they are for the other sports mentioned. But, the suit is a different story in my mind. We don't need any more suit than is necessary for modesty and when we do add more, it changes the way we interact with the water.
But if the stakes are really so low, why should you care enough to spend $$$ to buy a high-tech suit to go faster?
For skin cancer protection and knee stability, duh!
But this is disingenuous. As far as I can see, the only reason an individual wears these suits is to go faster; the other reasons are unconvincing, to say the least. But if the stakes are really so low, why should you care enough to spend $$$ to buy a high-tech suit to go faster?
I have never said I don't want to go faster. I want to go as fast as I can and do it using the most legal means possible. I just don't care what the people next to me are doing in heat.
If the suits remain legal for masters, then they are part of the equation to going as fast as I can. If FINA or USMS does ban them, then they won't be part of the equation to going faster, which won't necessarily be a bad thing. But I do hope we at least keep the textile ones legal. Another reason I would spend money on a bodysuit is that I really don't want to shave. Yea, I know there people who don't like that argument but unless you are somewhat hairy to really hairy, you have no idea how bad it is to shave. Someone said that even if you do wear a suit, you still have to shave. No, you really don't. Yea, some hair will stick through the suit but a bodysuit will still cut down on drastically on the drag created by the body hair.
I like Rob's suggestion of keeping the bodysuits made of textile material approved by FINA and getting rid of the rubbersuits. Yea, I have tried a rubberstyle suit...don't like how it feels...really itchy. The textile suits are much more comfortable, with less irriation, less controversy
Maybe, maybe not. But in the meantime we have to deal with the here and now, not speculate about what FINA will do in the future.
Right, and all the speculation up until now that precipitated this irrational decision was inherently justified? For the purity of the sport?
You should know, this isn't about what's good for the sport. This is about the first time in history there has been a political challenger to the throne, and nepotism cut the heir off at the knees!
What other sport is actually going in reverse when it comes to technology?
Actually, golf has just banned square groves, on a sliding rotation, depending on the level of competition.
