Friday, July 24, 2009
ROME (AP) — The swimmers on the pool deck in Rome are ogling each other’s high-tech bodysuits like fashionistas on the runways of Milan, thinking of gliding into history with yet another record-smashing time.
The leaders of the sport, however, are saying: Not so fast.
With all the astonishing technological advances of the past year and a half threatening to turn swimming into “a joke of a sport,” as one top coach put it, officials on Thursday took a cautious step toward reining things in.
FINA, the sport’s governing body, approved a proposal backed by USA Swimming that adds two key words to a rule stating: “No swimmer shall be permitted to use or wear any device that may aid his speed, buoyancy or endurance during a competition.” The new rule bars “any device or swimsuit” that aids performance.
The new rule comes just as Michael Phelps and Co. prepared to make a splash at the world swimming championships
“Now the line is in the sand. This week. It cannot go past this week,” said Alan Thompson, longtime leader of the Australian national team and one of swimming’s most influential figures. “This is a great sport. There are great people involved in it. We must return it back to the credibility it once had.”
That credibility has certainly been threatened by a mind-boggling assault on the record book. Last year, 108 world marks were set, off the charts even in an Olympic year with all the top swimmers in peak form. The trend is still going strong in 2009, with nearly 30 records falling already — an astonishingly high number coming on the heels of the Beijing Games, with many top swimmers taking time off, reducing their training regimen or struggling to stay motivated.
Some were beginning to wonder, Thompson among them, if any current records will still be standing after the eight-day world championships, the biggest meet outside the Olympics.
“We felt like that was a good victory,” Mark Schubert, head coach and general manager of the U.S. national team, told The Associated Press, when asked about the rule change.
Still, there’s plenty of skepticism that FINA will follow up on the rule change with meaningful restrictions — especially after it gave the green light to most new-age suits for Rome — and whatever is done from here won’t have any impact on these championships.
“When you put that thing on, it feels amazing,” said American backstroke star Aaron Peirsol, who wears the Arena X-Glide. “It definitely feels like something different than the suits we used five or six years ago.”
Some have suggested going back to old-style suits like the ones worn until the 1990s, remnants of an era when everyone thought the less fabric in a suit, the better.