This is clear as mud.This is a recommendation to a committee that meets in Jan,after the 1/1/10 deadline.Come on already,fish or cut bait.:argue:
Sweet! We get a chance to wear out our suits until the end of the year. :):angel:
Though some certainty going forward would be nice.
Sweet! We get a chance to wear out our suits until the end of the year. :):angel:
Though some certainty going forward would be nice.
That's certainly how I read the article based upon:The committee decided during two days of meetings in Sweden to “recommend to the FINA Bureau that it approve the FINA swimsuit rule … for masters competition,” said Nancy Ridout, the only U.S. member of FINA’s masters technical commission, in an e-mail.
The FINA Bureau next meets in mid-January.
I certainly hope, though, that USMS will come out on or before 10/1 and let us know what their intentions are. It would seem to me very easy, based upon this news out of the FINA committee, for USMS to say something like:USMS has made our formal recommendation to FINA on swimsuit regulations (insert hyperlink) and had recommended a 10/1/09 implementation date. With the recent decision by the FINA masters technical committee to further their recommendation to the FINA Bureau and the fact that the FINA Bureau will not meet until mid-January of 2010, the current allowable swimsuits are .... INSERT CLEAR LANGUAGE AS TO WTH WE CAN WEAR
Looking at USAS, though, they've pressed forward with 10/1 without waiting for FINA final ruling. I was talking with one of our senior officials who works across USAS, USMS and High School meets this weekend and he was as frustrated as we are. The officials want a definitive yes-no decision on swimsuits by brand and model so that they don't have to continually answer and make judgement calls when parents, swimmers and coaches ask about specific suits.
What will USMS do?
This part of the article may be a little misleading:
"The USMS House of Delegates voted last week to put it in place whatever ban is eventually instituted sooner rather than later, approving an Oct. 1 implementation date rather than a July 1, 2010, date."
It is true that the Rules Committee put 3 options before the HOD (including an Oct 1 and a July 1 implementation dates), and it is also true that the Oct 1 date won by a narrow margin. But it was simply an indication of preferences, it was not a specific motion for a change in rules. At least, that was my understanding at the time: the Rules Committee realized that they may have to act in-between sessions of the HOD and they wanted to have a sense of how the delegates felt about the issue. But the margin was narrow enough that I think the Rules Committee will use its discretion if it feels that an earlier ban would be problematic.
Assuming that the FINA masters committee did as the article suggests and pass along a recommendation to the FINA Bureau to impose the same rules as the elites, I don't see how USMS can can act before the Bureau makes its decision. This is NOT like the situation of USA-S, which decided on an earlier date than FINA (Oct 1 vs Jan 1)...in that case, the Bureau DID make a decision and chose (then un-chose then re-chose) Jan 1 as the implementation date. USA-S just decided to implement a little earlier, but they knew it was coming. I think that was a wise choice since then most of the season would be under the new rules.
In USMS' case, as far as I can tell, we cannot be sure what the FINA Bureau will decide until it issues its ruling. I am pretty sure that USMS will do whatever FINA says. But can it do so before its January meeting? I have no idea.
But who knows at this point. Maybe the higher-ups in USMS know something I do not (eg, that the FINA Bureau will agree to the committee's recommendation). But if there is any uncertainty, I don't see how USMS can act pre-emptively. Plus it wouldn't be fair to do so before the end of the SCM season since other countries' federations might not follow suit, so to speak.
