The advances in suit manufacturing, from the past year and a half, have torn through swimming's record books. Controversy has reached a fever pitch in recent months and FINA is now responding. The governing body has decided that the latest era of suit technology shall be banned beginning in 2010.
To many, Speedo's LZR Racer opened the floodgates for the current situation, with other companies following suit -- no pun intended -- and developing similar racing suits using polyurethane.
Under the new rules, men will only be permitted to wear suits that go from the waist to the knees; commonly known as "jammers". Women's suits can only go from the shoulders to just above the knees. There will be no more full body suits and they made from "textiles". There is not yet a specific definition for textiles, but one can assume that the word was chosen to communicate that polyurethane will no longer be an acceptable fabric.
A quick look around the internet and it seems most US swimmers and coaches applaud the move, as do the majority of the sport's fans. Not having to inquire as to who was wearing what, after a record is broken, will be a welcome change come 2010.
We're left now to wonder what happens to the records that were established using the high-tech suits. Will there be an asterisk or simply a goal that swimmers will continue to work towards in their daily training. Also, what will become of some of the newer companies that have surfaced? We look to the future for the answers to these questions.
Swim Stars will be on the scene in Indy for the World Championship Trials. I will mostly be providing coverage via the Swim Stars Twitter account, but I am also working on feeding those tweets into a live blog that will appear on the Swim Stars Live website.
For the absolute latest, check Twitter as I update from the IUPUI Natatorium. Pictures will also be added as the week progresses.
Good luck to all the Swim Stars!
ETA: This post should have gone live on Tuesday morning, but did not due to server error. My apologies!
FINA Bans "Super Suits", Announces New Standards for 2010
