How to Cut WR Coat According to 2010 Cloth
by Craig Lord and Phil Whitten
SwimNews.com     Sep 15, 2009

The board of the World Swimming Coaches Association has called for a line to be drawn in the world records book so that standards from January 1, 2010 can reflect competition conditions when bodysuits and non-textile fabrics will be barred from the elite race pool.

In 2008 and 2009, the use of so-called high-tech suits made partly (2008 models) or wholly (2009 models) of non-textile suits led to the breaking of almost 200 world records. In eight days alone at the world championships in Rome, 43 new global standards were set in a 40-event programme. The previous high at a world championship had been 16, in 1973, from 29 events.

Many fear that the non-textile records are so fast compared to the best efforts ever seen in textile suits that it could be many years before anyone can challenge world-record pace. For example, no woman clean of doping or wearing textile suit has ever raced inside 2mins 10sec over 200m medley. The world record stands to Ariana Kukors, world champion for the US in Rome in July, at 2:06.15.

Coaches attending the American Swimming Coaches Association World Clinic in Fort Lauderdale at the weekend are keen to avoid having the record book serve as a disincentive to swimmers as they strive to improve and set career goals. The WSCA board voted unanimously in favour of a suggestion arrived at with the help of SwimNews.

Eighteen months of turmoil on suits followed FINA's permission for the use of polyurethane in race suits. But in July, amid widespread protest among coaches and swimmers and heavy criticism from media around the world, the international federation voted at Congress to impose new suit rules that allow textile-only suits and insist on a specific cut of suit: men will wear anything from briefs to jammers; women will wear a suit from shoulder strap to a cut above the knee, with no zippers or fasteners allowed.

The world-records model that coaches would like to see FINA adopt was presented to the board of WSCA by Craig Lord and Phil Whitten in Fort Lauderdale last Saturday. The model reflects that suggested by SwimNews back in July and was arrived at independently by the two journalists as they sought a sensible solution to the issue.

As explained by the two journalists last Saturday: “The three things that make this solution particularly attractive are  (1) precedent - FINA has taken precisely this approach after several rule changes in the past - for example when swimming underwater in the breaststroke was restricted to one stroke after the start and turns;  (2) respect for athletes and coaches - world record setters under the 2008-09 rules continue to be recognised for their achievements, as do those who set standards in textile suits prior to 2008; and  (3) uniformity - the model can be rolled out across the world of continental, regional and national record books with relative ease."