LEXINGTON, KY - If a recent ruling from Rome on what can and cannot be worn in competitive swimming had come four years ago, a central Kentucky company would have born the brunt of the decision. FINA, competition swimming's governing body, banned record-setting bodysuits in an aggressive move to limit the influences of technology on outcomes in the sport.
Rapid advances in swimsuit "air trapping" technology that artificially enhances speed have been credited in 108 of the world records set in 2008, plus more than two dozen in '09.
"Now that performance enhancing drugs are banned in sports, swimming is obviously wanting to make their imprint, however they will most likely have to defend this ruling in court which will be interesting, since they really have no basis to support their decision other than an unfair advantage," said Paige Shumate Short, CEO of Kentucky Technical Textiles. Short's Paris-based company produced the bodysuits for Speedo from 1968 until 2005 when Speedo moved its manufacturing to Mexico and China.
"This is a case of a regulating body trying to control competitive swimming as if the swimmer was using an illegal substance," she said of the FINA ruling. "A swimsuit is a tool the same as an aluminum bat is to a baseball player or compression shorts are to a cyclist."
USA Swimming officials said they will conform to the FINA standard. The wording of the new rule says suits can be made only from "textiles," but leaves the term open to definition. A clarification of "textiles" is not expected until the next FINA bureau meeting in early fall.
The new rules won't take effect at the World Championships now underway through August 2 in Rome where dozens of world records could be set in suits made from materials such as polyurethane.
But those records and others could be called into doubt. Some members of the FINA Congress have pushed for attaching an asterisk to records set over the last 18 months. While Olympic superstar Michael Phelps wore a nearly full-body suit on his way to eight gold medals last year in Beijing, he has not worn the type of suit soon under the FINA ban, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
"The saddest part of this decision is the records that were set will now be in question because of a swimsuit and not the fact that the swimmer is an excellent athlete," said Short.