Last week FINA, the governing body for swimming, released its updated list of approved swimwear for 2009. Controversy surrounding the latest advances in high-tech swimwear has produced a tidal wave of emotion and debate in the swimming world. Craig Lord revealed the depth of anxiety amongst swimming fans and aficionados in a passionate piece on SwimNews.com. Brent S. Rushall of Sports Science Associates, and a critic of FINA’s handling of the issue, does a good job explaining how the suits increase swimmers’ speed, on his website. [The link can't be opened from this page. Cut and paste: http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swimming/bodysuit/burns.htm ]
The issue at the elite level, of course, affects younger swimmers. With advanced technology comes advanced cost, making access to these performance-enhancing suits difficult for young swimmers. Nevertheless, high school swimmers and coaches feel that they have no choice but to join the arms race.
Josh Katzowitz reports on Rivals High: “In the Ohio state championships, swimmers would wear their $300 blueseventy Nero models or their $500 Speedy LZR Racers, race in them to times never before accomplished, wash them out and pass them along to a teammate or friend.” A freshman swimmer from Wyoming (Ohio) High School said, "Every guy you swim against has one of these suits, so if you don't have one, you're already behind when you jump in the pool."
Andy Pedersen, the boys' and girls' swim coach at Hamilton Southeast High School in suburban Indianapolis told Katsowitz, "I'm kind of an old-school guy and I did not want to deal with the suits . . . But I had to. I couldn't put our kids in a position to lose based on a suit. We're a Speedo team and we got some LZRs and we got some blueseventys. They were hard to come by. A lot of people complain about the price, but for me, that wasn't one of the factors.”
For some suburban teams, price may not be a factor, but at a time when USA Swimming has created a special task force to attract “economically disadvantaged youth” to the sport, the introduction of $500 swim suits creates a new barrier to participation.
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