I guess it took no more than 3 days of World Championship action from Rome to conclude that world swimming is now turning into a fiasco…somewhat in the vein of Formula 1 (politics), cycling (doping) and baseball (steroids) in recent years.
While it is always fascinating for the general public to hear about 4 or 5 world records being broken every single day, one only has to look closer to realise that swimmers whom haven’t exactly been at the sharp end of world swimming previously have suddenly come onto the scene and shaved huge chunks off revered world records.
Tell me, how does someone come along out of nowhere and take down Ian Thorpe’s revered 400m free WR? Or set a 1:42 flat in the 200m free, and at the same time destroying Michael Phelps in the same race? Or in the case of Kukors in the 200 IM, take 1 second off the WR in the semis, then a further 1 second off that time in the finals?
The mind boggles at the sheer thought.
It’s a farce, a shamble, an abomination…call it whatever you will.
The main point of contention?
The suits.
FINA needs to clear this mess up quickly.
…
P.S. Hey maybe we should just take swimming back to the stone ages whereby everyone simply wore a pair of skimpy trunks. I’m sure all the ladies would be thrilled to see that once again. =)
Ooh yummy suggestion!!! Haha
Hi Jeremy,
Though I kind of accidentally stumbled on your blog yesterday, I have to say that quite a lot of the stuff you blog about are actually stuff that interest me, hence I’m responding though I don’t know you personally. :)
I totally agree with you that swimming is fast becoming a sham. However, I am just wondering what’s your opinion on how Fina should go about cleaning up the mess.
There are just so many repercussions if they are to ban the suits: At which point should they declare the suits banned? And if they do, should the records set by swimmers who used the suit be declared null and void? AND if they declare the suits null and void, how far back should they go? To the time when Ian Thorpe began suiting up (albeit in a lesser suit than the current ones)? How about those like Hoogie who wore half a suit during the 2000 Olympics?
I suppose one possible alternative is to ban the suits now and leave the records to stand. But that may mean we have that bunch of records standing for a very long time to come as a reminder not of human achievement (as records ought to be) but of the period when the sport became a mockery!
Hi Elaine,
You’ve brought up many good points and questions. You seem to be very knowledgeable about swimming!
It’s really hard to answer some of these questions, because as you’ve rightly pointed out, where do we draw the line? How far do we go back to? Do we go back to Beijing ’08 when Phelps was in a then-superior LZR suit? Or how about when Thorpe became the first swimmer to don a full body suit in Sydney ’00 (albeit nowhere as hi-tech as the Jakeds and X-Glides of today)?
I think there’s no way to really draw the line.
I agree with your suggestion that the best would be just to set a definitive stand now and ban the suits, and let the WRs stand as they are.
However, as you have rightly pointed out, some of the WRs will take a LOOONG time to be broken. I just don’t see anyone going under 1:42 in the Men’s 200m Free in the near future.
And that is just one example. I think there are at least a half a dozen freshly-minted WRs that are virtually impossible to be broken without the use of Jakeds or X-Glides…at least not within the next 3 to 4 years!
There was a time when breaking a WR in swimming used to be a marvellous event. Nowadays it’s become so commonplace that it’s almost a non-event. And not only that, it’s being treated with scepticism too.
Yes, that’s the worst of the suit controversy isn’t it – how technology devalues and undercuts the human achievement in sport. I remember watching the Beijing Olympics last year – and the whole time I was just wondering if Phelps could have completed his feat without his suit and also if the records were caused by the fact that Beijing built an extremely “fast” pool.
And incidentally, I’m not as updated as I’d like to be (as a result of being swamped by work) – seems Fina has said that there’s going to be a new ruling that by next year, all suits would have to be made of “textiles” (criteria seems dubious to me though) and no more polyurethane. Current records set with the suits still stand though.
What a strange situation – since a supposedly moral decision has been made to bring back some integrity to the sport, why enforce it only in Jan next year just because the swimsuit manufacturers need to come up with a new solution? (The skeptic in me is thinking – probably finding new ways to bend the rules again…)
Yeah, the FINA ruling is quite strange in the sense that it only takes effect on 1 Jan next year. Some things are hard to fathom.
However, in my opinion it doesn’t really matter, cos there will not be any significant meets from after this World Champs till next year. In fact, I don’t think there are any meets in 2010 that are anywhere as significant as the Olympics or World Champs, so I guess the swimmers should be all OK with the ruling.
I’m just really curious to see how far away the swimmers will be from the WR times once the new ruling takes effect. Will it take 3 to 4 years to even come close to any of the current WRs? I wonder…