Some Aging Competitors Call High-Tech Swimsuits Dirty Pool

The motto of the US Olympic alumni is "Always and Olympian, never former, never past".

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.

the suits are great but they won't make up that much difference Mann was in way better shape than Evans. Mann has been training harder longer than evans. Tip 265 Train harder, smarter, faster, further, more often, with a coach, with a team, in a convenient facility & at a convenient Time Obviously swimming fast doesn't matter much to Evans, Evans wasn't training hard enough to justify spending $400 on a suit. Tech suits probably improve Mann by a 1/2 - 1 second per 50 They often help slower swimmers by even more. Mann's 200 IM was 2:21.92 vs Evans 2:53.86 400 IM Mann 5:04.07 6:13.08 Evans

By the same token, solving the small problem with a huge "solution" of setting new standards for suit design and changing all the swimming businesses from top to bottom I just don't really see why this is a "huge" solution. As the governing body of the sport it seems to me FINA has every right to regulate the equipment that can be used in competition under their auspices. Nearly every sport has rules governing what equipment is allowed. FINA's biggest problem was allowing the situation to get out of hand before reacting. And I really don't see how this changes the swimming businesses "from top to bottom," either. Yes, they now have suit designs that are illegal and will probably have some stock that will now be hard to sell, but otherwise it should be business as usual. Swimmers will still need to buy suits. They just have to design and market suits that conform to the new rules.

I never meant to make a big deal about "ex-Olympians". When it was pointed out to me I just thought it was right and so I wanted to pass it on. To me dropping the "ex" honors those who have worked so very hard to achieve the ultimate in sport. But that's just me. I also wasn't trying to equate Olympians with Presidents. I was only making (or trying to make) the point that designation of honor sometimes stay with a person long after the event or appointment or election.

The motto of the US Olympic alumni is "Always and Olympian, never former, never past". I hope that's not all that defines you. It's very cool, but I agree with Chris.

Tim: Gail Roper explains this best in the 5th post of the link below on Olympian Masters, like a doctor's degree. Olympian Masters ? - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums goodness, I forgot all about that thread. I do remember lobbying to have it closed down...

One small point I would like to make as I have been corrected on this myself. There are no "ex-Olympians". Michael Phelps is an Olympian, as is Mark Spitz, Donna DeVerona and Clay Evans. Now, you may continue with this thread........:bolt: I have seen countless references in newspapers and magazines to "ex-Olympians". Are all the journalists and editors wrong? Ex-Olympian has no negative meaning, it just means someone that competed in the Olympics in the past (which is quite an accomplishment). How exactly should someone refer to an person that formerly competed in the Olympics? Should you always call them an Olympian and designate the Olympics/year/event/placing (medals)? Please help me with the proper way to reference a person that formerly competed in the Olympics for future posts so I can avoid offending anyone since there are a handful of forumites that are "Olympians". I do sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by my thoughtless references to "ex-Olympian", but I was more concerned about proper tense at the time and didn't want to confuse anyone that Michael Mann beat a current Olympian by a minute and 9 seconds in a 400IM. Tim

So it is agreed? We can drop all prefixes from the descriptor Olympian? Jim Thornton, non-Olympian is now.... Jim Thornton, Olympian! On a somewhat related note, I befriended Jason Alexander on Facebook recently. The guy's name really is Jason Alexander, and he was using a picture of George Costanza as his profile picture. But when you look at his other pictures, none of them look remotely like THE Jason Alexander. Not that this matters. I wonder what he'll think when he discovers my title, Jim Thornton, Olympian. Okay, well, I hope I have contributed something relevant to this discussion.

I just spent an hour reading the old olympian masters thread from 2007- i have a huge headache now :) time for bed!