USMS Suit Rules
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Suit Debacle - USMS Convention Edition
**UPDATE: Click here for a scan of some of what was voted on
Ok so I just got out of the final meeting of this year's house of delegates. The last action item was, dun dun dun.... swimsuits. It finally happened. Up until this point hardly anyone mentioned it, it was like bringing up religion or politics in casual conversation... not a good idea. Once the floor opened up the comments got pretty hot for a little while.
2 major things went down here but I will forewarn you that all this may be completely meaningless depending on how things go down next week with the FINA Masters Technical Committee.
1st off, the USMS rules committee proposed suit restrictions. THIS IS A RECOMMENDATION NOT A RULE!!! The short version is men and women get the same suits, shoulder to knee in textile (the definition of which is tbd). Zippers and drawstrings are allowed. Modesty suits are still ok and taping is only allowed for medical reasons.
2nd we voted on how long to keep suits in regards to short course yards season. In case you forgot we're the only country that bothers with SCY. The 2 choices that people were voting for were:
1. dropping the tech suits as soon as the FINA Masters swim wear rule is adopted
2. Keep tech suits for SCY until June 1st (when SCY season ends) or later if FINA adopts no standard.
The vote was much closer than I would have expected. 101 to 93 in favor of dropping the suits earlier rather than later. Boo. I still think FINA has plenty of flip flop left in it and this was probably a whole lot of fighting for nothing. We'll see how it goes down. From what I understand we still get to ride out the rest of SCM season in techsuits.
More info will be coming out on this in the next couple of weeks, but I want to remind you all again that this still doesn't mean anything per se. There are a lot of variables floating around, but I wanted to share what's gone down so far.
Argue amongst yourselves, I have a banquet to get to!
from
www.robaquatics.com/.../suit-debacle-usms-convention-edition.html
I'm more sympathetic to your view on SCM but just want to rip the bandaid off here.
opposite view ... (which is the one that appears to have won the day).
Yeah, the rest of the world has been swimming SCM and holding SCM championship meets, so it's no big deal to us US swimmers ... I'm not as worried about SCY (an admittedly long season) as SCM.
A tech suit is not a "bandaid." These are the types of words purists use that contribute to your, now admitted, moral self righteous image.
Well, you haven't "won" yet. To date, FINA doesn't care about masters. It is quite possible of course that FINA will change its mind. And, if it does, I think it will be for the reasons Jimby previously stated -- bureaucratic need to exert dominion and jurisdiction over every conceivable regulatee.
I'm more sympathetic to your view on SCM but just want to rip the bandaid off here.
opposite view ... (which is the one that appears to have won the day).
Yeah, the rest of the world has been swimming SCM and holding SCM championship meets, so it's no big deal to us US swimmers ... I'm not as worried about SCY (an admittedly long season) as SCM.
A tech suit is not a "bandaid." These are the types of words purists use that contribute to your, now admitted, moral self righteous image.
Well, you haven't "won" yet. To date, FINA doesn't care about masters. It is quite possible of course that FINA will change its mind. And, if it does, I think it will be for the reasons Jimby previously stated -- bureaucratic need to exert dominion and jurisdiction over every conceivable regulatee.
