New Swimsuits, New World Records

I'm not a fan of swimming, especially since the women where those body suits. It's getting ridiculous. Wearing these suits artificially enhance your performance, just like drugs, so the world records shouldn't count. Is it fair to old record holders who just wore a speedo or a one piece swimsuit? What next? Propellers on their ankles? To me, they are not legitimate times because they have an unfair advantage over swimmers that wore real swimsuits.

I say, give 'em all the new suits...this way, they'll be a level playing field. Personally, I'd take it a step further, and would make steroids mandatory. This way, we get to see huge, hulking beasts jumping halfway across the pool before 'roiding out, eating the opponent in the next lane, then gliding to victory in their technologically-advanced swimsuits. Now THAT'S entertainment, dammit!

(I think steroids would do wonders for baseball, too...oh, wait...)

Maybe it's time for them to get back to basics and just swim in the nude.

It's suppose to be about your swimming ability, not the NASA scientists who make you a faster swimsuit. They shouldn't swim nude, but they should go back to the basic swimsuits they wore before 2000. A world record with one of these new suits is like a world record by a drug cheat. It's not fair to the old record holders who didn't have these suits.

The suit doesn't do much --- its still the swimmer, regardless. Swimmers who don't have these new so called high tech suits, feel at little intimated at first. But once they're in the water, that feeling slowly fades away. Now nude swimming thats an interesting concept --

News to me, I hadn't even heard about this before?!?

I think it's fair though, everyone will have to get one to be competitive maybe. If new, superior tires were invented for auto racing, wouldn't that be okay if everyone had access to them?

Are the new suits not available to all?

Fonzz wrote:

Not when one company makes them, and your swimmer's sponser is a different company. Its about contracts, money, and other assorted BS that has nothing to do with the actual swimming.

Personally, I think these suits will be the norm in the next few years. People want to see world records shattered, and (good or bad) the powers-that-be will put that ahead of any 'purity of competition' arguments.

It should be a level playing field, but if you have one sponsor and another company has a better suit, you're screwed. The suits do make a difference, otherwise world records wouldn't be falling at this incredible rate. All records are being broken at every distance, which should tell you that it's the suits and not the swimmers that are the cause of the world records falling.

They've already decided that they're going to be banned come January 1st of 2010.

Should the records still stand? I don't think so. These suits allow for less friction, thus making the swimmer faster. Ban them and reset the record books. Or place an asterisk next to them.

OhioRedneck wrote:

agree. thouse suits give to big benefits

In Track if the wind is gusting too fast, the record doesn't count. It's the same with swimming and these new suits. The performances are enhanced by these suits, thus making the records tainted. These fast suits enhance your performance better than most steroids.

Old school rules!!
thoose suits are very bad for the sports!

43 World Records in one swim meet. That's the most in the history of mankind! Obviously, it's the suits. Everyone is breaking world records and it's a joke.

DYasha wrote:

Either that or the swimmers have figured out how to absolutely beat the drug tests.

These new suits are better than steroids because they get results without giving you heart failure or weird cancers. I don't really care about swimming as a sport, but I do care about records and who legitimately has the fastest time. You know something is up when every record is being broken.