Went to the Missouri Grand Prix, w my wife and girls, age 12 and 8, to watch some great swimming this past weekend and it was great!
Also recently paid to have a criminal background check as I am an official for USA swimming, so they can make sure I'm not a perv...(I passed...)
I will say this, and I'm really not a prude, but in light of spending 55-60 bucks for the background check, perhaps USA swimming should look at enforcing some simple modesty in the swimmers.
I've never seen so many butt-cracks on the men and butt cheeks on the women in my entire lifelong swimming experience!!!! The fronts of guys suits literally an inch from their "junk" and their butt crack hanging out. Girls with their full butt cheek exposed as their warmup suits were 5 sizes too small and tucked in like a thong.
My 8 yr old daughter and my wife had a 20 something young man wrap his towel around himself, pull off his suit, pull on his underwear, about 5 ft in front of them (and his butt was fully exposed for a brief moment)...
I personally dont care, it bothers me not in the least, but what does bother me is USA is trying to crack down on the pervs, but then allows this...
Just my 2 cents...
In recent years with all the tech suits, we've forgotten the old-style suits. But I don't think they are any worse than when I was in college back in the 80s. I had a teammate who wore a size 24 paper suit to championship meets: so small and painful that he would only put it on right before his race and immediately take it off. And deck changes have been around forever.
One difference is on the females, the race-suits are not as revealing as the old high-riding suits. Yes, warmup suits are throwbacks to those days. But I see girls wearing similar suits in practice. A little oddly, the guys don't, they tend to the drag suits or, more commonly, the old ratty suits with holes, worn over jammers. I guess that's the cool look nowadays. I'm decidedly old-school in my Endurance briefs.
It's swimming. Other than the butt-cracks, which still bother me a little -- I guess I'm showing my age, but whoever thought THAT was a good idea? -- these sort of things are commonplace enough to become banal.
My wife had to go through that background check thing too (though she got reimbursed at least). I guess I see why they do it, but it still seems so CYA instead of anything practical. I mean, heck: she's a Recorder -- staring at the computer screen the entire meet -- and gets a background check. Meanwhile I can swim in the same lane with seemingly half-naked teenage girls in practice without a problem. Sheesh, lawyers.
In recent years with all the tech suits, we've forgotten the old-style suits. But I don't think they are any worse than when I was in college back in the 80s. I had a teammate who wore a size 24 paper suit to championship meets: so small and painful that he would only put it on right before his race and immediately take it off. And deck changes have been around forever.
One difference is on the females, the race-suits are not as revealing as the old high-riding suits. Yes, warmup suits are throwbacks to those days. But I see girls wearing similar suits in practice. A little oddly, the guys don't, they tend to the drag suits or, more commonly, the old ratty suits with holes, worn over jammers. I guess that's the cool look nowadays. I'm decidedly old-school in my Endurance briefs.
It's swimming. Other than the butt-cracks, which still bother me a little -- I guess I'm showing my age, but whoever thought THAT was a good idea? -- these sort of things are commonplace enough to become banal.
My wife had to go through that background check thing too (though she got reimbursed at least). I guess I see why they do it, but it still seems so CYA instead of anything practical. I mean, heck: she's a Recorder -- staring at the computer screen the entire meet -- and gets a background check. Meanwhile I can swim in the same lane with seemingly half-naked teenage girls in practice without a problem. Sheesh, lawyers.
