Give it a rest. Men don't have boobs or the body fat women do. If we looked the same, maybe the same suit would be warranted.
I am not entirely ready to stipulate this, dearest Leslie. Though I am certainly not our team's Dolly Parton, I think I can humbly say I fill out a bikini top more amply than some of the women.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (for those who don't know what this means, the "needle" on the "record player" somehow gets stuck in a "groove" leading to the repetitive and eventually obnoxious replay of part of the "song" till somebody gets up, and saunters over to the "Victrola" and gives it a good "whack"), I wonder if anyone has compared the men's and women's times to their respective previous year's performances, what I think Patrick may have termed a "regression analysis" in order to determine whether, and to what extent, the still-legal women's suits continue to provide a "cheating" (in the loosest sense of the word) advantage compared to the women's suits legal before this entire "hullaballoo" began?
And I have no "idea" why I am using "quote marks" all over the place, other than fatigue and an acute "sense of injustice" that won't "leave me alone!"
I think the suits were even further developed the year following Beijing and they learned how to swim in them. They also could hear the end was coming politically, so their training plan included worlds to try and take down records. Maybe now they are focusing on 2012 and it did not include this year's short course.
Just a thought.
I don't think there is much question that the main factor was the suit ban, and all other considerations are fairly minor by comparison.
Although there were no LCM records set this year, there were several close calls. My prediction is that there will be a few WRs in the year of the Olympics, though not a huge number. (They will not necessarily be set at the Olympics themselves; often people swim a little faster in the trials.)
I think the main draw of Olympic swimming to "the common person" will be the story-lines (eg, Lochte vs Phelps); indeed one can argue that has always been the case. Phelps' pursuit of his "octet" was independent of the whole suit thing.
Lochte and several other top swimmers don't have the body fat of a 48 year old masters swimmer...
If I had Lochte's or even Soni's body fat i wouldn't want the suits back either...
I'll never understand this argument. If you put on body fat, you should pay the price in the pool and not kid yourself about it. In this sense the suit ban gives an incentive for healthy behavior.
Fine physical specimens they may be, but their (lack of) body fat is certainly not what set Lochte and Soni apart from their peers.
Lochte and several other top swimmers don't have the body fat of a 48 year old masters swimmer...
If I had Lochte's or even Soni's body fat i wouldn't want the suits back either...
:banana:
There are Masters Swimmers in the late 40s that are more ripped/less body fat than Lochte and Soni. I have body fat and I seem to manage just fine without a tech suit.
"Oh God of Water, strike my eyes from my skull, for I have seen a vision not ment for a mere man. Please help me to move forward in my quest to purge my brain from the pain. I am your servant, I follow your rules."
Be of good cheer, Stumpwanker!
Let nothing human disgust you.
I say this on the day of my son's birth.
Go and be in peace and be troubled no more.
--Jim Thornton speaking in tongues, i.e., God's own ventriloquist dummy
If swimmers could swim fast enough to break the existing records they would be doing it. The tech suits were an advantage. W/O them everyone, especially men are slower.
If the suits weren't an advantage they wouldn't have been banned, all those WR's wouldn't have been broken by swimmers wearing them and swimmers would not have paid $400 a pop for them. The fact that in the two full years since they have been banned few WR's have been broken is because of the suits.
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG,
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhH,
OH MY OH MY OH MY OH OH OH OH MY MY MY.
MY EYES, MY EYES, I CAN'T SEE.
'm tyring to tyep butt I;m blnded.
May God hvi merci on your sole.
I once was blind, but now I see.
No man should go hence forth without the burka.
I pray to FINA that what I have seen shall never see the light of day.
"Oh God of Water, strike my eyes from my skull, for I have seen a vision not ment for a mere man. Please help me to move forward in my quest to purge my brain from the pain. I am your servant, I follow your rules."
