Some Aging Competitors Call High-Tech Swimsuits Dirty Pool

i think in a lot of cases its just boils down to "some swimmer beats me and they were wearing a different suit than me that is the new top of the line technology. i hate when i get beat." its then easy to just go ahead and say you hate them for any of the miriad of reasons there are to hate the suits (cost, moral issues with "cheating", etc). Maybe. When they are legal, there are two choices: (a) don't wear a suit, and be at a disadvantage, or (b) wear the suit to level the playing field more. Some people love the feel of swimming with the suit, I was never one of them. And I don't mind shaving a few times a year; in fact, even WITH the suits I did it anyway because I never trusted that they wouldn't malfunction. (Plus, psychologically, I love the feeling of swimming shaved in warmups, before I put on the suit.) My wife doesn't mind when I shave, she actually kind of likes it (but I digress...:)) When I wore the suit, it was just a bit of a hassle. I gamely tried it for awhile (and if they stay legal, I'll probably do it again). The decision of which one to wear, changing the pre-race routines to allow time to put it on, sometimes a panic attack when something goes wrong. The final straw was when I had two suits stolen at a meet (good thing I was shaved anyway); in fact, it happened the exact same weekend as FINA announced the initial ban. (Coincidence? I think not!) All that headache for what, a more level playing field? We had that before the suits (as much as that is possible, at least). From a selfish standpoint, I always suspected the suits helped most of my masters competitors more than me anyway, so I wasn't sad to see them go.

i think in a lot of cases its just boils down to "some swimmer beats me and they were wearing a different suit than me that is the new top of the line technology. i hate when i get beat." its then easy to just go ahead and say you hate them for any of the miriad of reasons there are to hate the suits (cost, moral issues with "cheating", etc). Maybe. When they are legal, there are two choices: (a) don't wear a suit, and be at a disadvantage, or (b) wear the suit to level the playing field more. Some people love the feel of swimming with the suit, I was never one of them. And I don't mind shaving a few times a year; in fact, even WITH the suits I did it anyway because I never trusted that they wouldn't malfunction. (Plus, psychologically, I love the feeling of swimming shaved in warmups, before I put on the suit.) My wife doesn't mind when I shave, she actually kind of likes it (but I digress...:)) When I wore the suit, it was just a bit of a hassle. I gamely tried it for awhile (and if they stay legal, I'll probably do it again). The decision of which one to wear, changing the pre-race routines to allow time to put it on, sometimes a panic attack when something goes wrong. The final straw was when I had two suits stolen at a meet (good thing I was shaved anyway); in fact, it happened the exact same weekend as FINA announced the initial ban. (Coincidence? I think not!) All that headache for what, a more level playing field? We had that before the suits (as much as that is possible, at least). From a selfish standpoint, I always suspected the suits helped most of my masters competitors more than me anyway, so I wasn't sad to see them go.