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.
Yeah, this is what I was sort of thinking... I have a member of the USMS board on my team actually and I know she's looking into things. From what I understand, Masters meets aren't SUPER competitive like other swimming organizations. Sure, you have those that are there to compete amongst each other, but the majority are probably there to compete for their personal records. I would think that that fact alone would warrant some consideration for possible changes to the rules.
If that were true then our pool measurement rules -- which are more strict in most respects than USA-S or FINA -- would be relaxed. When relaxed measurement rules were last suggested at Convention, it was as if we were suggesting that cannibalism was no big deal.
The attitude of the people who actually make or approve rules is far more competition-focused and Javert-inspired than the attitude of the hoi polloi.
Yeah, this is what I was sort of thinking... I have a member of the USMS board on my team actually and I know she's looking into things. From what I understand, Masters meets aren't SUPER competitive like other swimming organizations. Sure, you have those that are there to compete amongst each other, but the majority are probably there to compete for their personal records. I would think that that fact alone would warrant some consideration for possible changes to the rules.
If that were true then our pool measurement rules -- which are more strict in most respects than USA-S or FINA -- would be relaxed. When relaxed measurement rules were last suggested at Convention, it was as if we were suggesting that cannibalism was no big deal.
The attitude of the people who actually make or approve rules is far more competition-focused and Javert-inspired than the attitude of the hoi polloi.
