I'm a college age swimmer (M22) who has been swimming since middle school. Recently after having gotten back into swimming after a three year hiatus by joining masters, I also started wearing one piece swimsuits originally meant for women. I find them to be a lot more comfortable on my body, they're more streamlined for swimming, have a lot more fun and artistic designs, and they don't feel as restricting as suits with drawstrings do. I pretty consistently wear them for practice now; why wouldn't you want to wear something that feels comfortable to you? And as a bonus, other swimmers seem to be okay with it... at the very least no one has said anything about it. My coaches are all very supportive of the practice as well and generally just encourage people to wear whatever feels comfortable.
I would love to get a feel for others thoughts about the matter, but more importantly, I would love the get the USMS meet rules changed so I can compete in what I feel comfortable wearing. Now, it goes to show that I still identify as a straight male, but also I suppose that this could be new grounds for helping those with gender disphoria/transgender or what have you as well, but that's currently not what I'm focusing on.
Back before 2010, it was pretty lassiez-faire. Ian Thorpe famously wore a suit that covered everything from his ankles to his wrists in the early 2000s as one of the best middle distance freestylers of all time.
It really came to a head when Speedo came out with a suit with polyurethane panels, and then other companies followed up with completely polyurethane suits - basically advanced floatation devices. Pretty much every world record was broken at the 2009 long course World Championships and shortly after that FINA finally put their foot down.
Back before 2010, it was pretty lassiez-faire. Ian Thorpe famously wore a suit that covered everything from his ankles to his wrists in the early 2000s as one of the best middle distance freestylers of all time.
It really came to a head when Speedo came out with a suit with polyurethane panels, and then other companies followed up with completely polyurethane suits - basically advanced floatation devices. Pretty much every world record was broken at the 2009 long course World Championships and shortly after that FINA finally put their foot down.
