wang writes

“No swimmer shall be permitted to use or wear any device or swimsuit that may aid his speed, buoyancy or endurance during a competition.”

That little amendment in bold was passed by Fina’s technical congress at the on-going world championships in Rome, where they voted to add those two little words to rule SW10.7. This, with the goal of giving swimming back to the swimmers and end the debate over the advances in swimsuit technology that was sparked off by Speedo’s LZR.

The omission of “or swimsuit” from the original rule had allowed the manufacturers to produce costumes that clearly aided buoyancy and made the swimmers go faster by using impermeable materials like polyurethane (which traps air and increases buoyancy).

No idea what polyurethane is? Here’s wikipedia’s explanation of its uses:

“Polyurethane products have many uses. Over three quarters of the global consumption of polyurethane products is in the form of foams, with flexible and rigid types being roughly equal in market size. In both cases, the foam is usually behind other materials: flexible foams are behind upholstery fabrics in commercial and domestic furniture; rigid foams are inside the metal and plastic walls of most refrigerators and freezers, or behind paper, metals and other surface materials in the case of thermal insulation panels in the construction sector. Its use in garments is growing: for example, in lining the cups of brassieres. Polyurethane is also used for moldings which include door frames, columns, balusters, window headers, pediments, medallions and rosettes.”

That is what the light grey panels on the suit below are made of…

Hi-tech swimsuits like Speedo's LZR swimsuit helped break nearly 140 world records since last year. Photograph: Speedo/PA

Trouble is, the resolution will not come into effect for another 60 days. Till then, many more world records will probably tumble given that the world champs are on. Will the authorities then discount all those records set in the suits? What about national marks, like those owned by Quah Ting Wen and Tao Li in Singapore? Can they afford to just revert to traditional-style suits without at least putting an asterisk next to a record that was set using a high-tech suit? If they don’t do so, I think it will risk the world not seeing another mark fall in at least a few years, which could be detrimental to the sport and its athletes, for sportsmen are always aiming to be faster, higher and stronger and to not see any fruits of their labour would be discouraging.

Personally I’m all for old-style suits. I race in a traditional Nike swimsuit, and it suits me just fine. Many women were using Blue Seventy or Orca speedsuits during the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore in March, but I managed to get out of the water ahead of quite a number of them, which gave me a huge kick.

Lance may say: “It’s not about the bike.” But with swimsuits, it’s increasingly becoming: “It’s mostly all about the suit.” Having design go back in time would mean slower times (temporarily, till humans get faster through evolution), but at least the focus would return to swimming and swimmers and not their suits.