By Spiro Zavos
February 25th 2009 @ 2:48am
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The answer to the Olympic swim suit controversy
FINA, the international organisation governing swimming, and sixteen leading swimsuit manfacturers have developed new rules on what swimmers can wear in international swimming tournament.
The rules, in my opinion, are fine for all events outside of the World Championships, the Commonwealth games and the Olympic Games.
In the future, swimsuits will not extend past the shoulders, below the ankles or above the neck. A buoyancy standard will be created that cannot be exceeded. And swimmers will not be able to wear multiple suits like the Olympic champion Frederica Pellegrini, who had four suits on when she won her medal at Beijing.
The advent of the fast suit has lead the sport into a technology-led drive that resulted in 108 world records since the introduction of ‘performance-enhancing’ swimsuits.
The irony in all of this is that while swimmers wearing the suits have smashed records and the manufacturers have encouraged the use of the suits because they are faster, FINA and the Olympic authorities have been assured that these suits do not give terrific advantages to those who wear them.
In Dawn Fraser’s day, the swimsuits were a drag on the swimmers. The manufacturers developed thinner and thinner material to eliminate the drag.
Sometimes these suits, in a certain light, were so thin that they were embarrassing for female swimmers to use.
Now the latest models are a huge booster to the performance of the swimmers.
Those swimmers using the suits have a great advantage over those who do not have access to them. This advantage, which will be maintained although on a slightly reduced level with the new rules, destroys the proper competition that the Olympics are supposed to be about.
My answer to the problem of ensuring a level swimming pool is for FINA to provide a standardised swimsuit for every competitor. In this way, the best swimmer on the day or night, rather than the best-resourced swimmer, will win the medals.
There is a precedent for this.
Javelin technology got so sophisticated that the javelins were liable to be thrown into the stands, impaling an unfortunate spectator if things went wrong. So javelins were standardised with the technology cut back.
And at the Olympics, the throwers use javelins from a common group of javelins.
Scott Fitzgerald ends his masterpiece The Great Gatsby with the marvellous aphorism: “A rising tide lifts all the boots.”
The rising tide of the fast swimsuits should lift all the Olympic swimmers.
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Clarissa said | February 25th 2009 @ 7:11am | Report comment
Love your literary quote Spiro. Nice to see a touch of class on The Roar. But I don’t think that was Fitzgerald. I think you’ve confused it with Faulkner’s story of the 1927 Mississippi flood. That was the one where riverbank houses were inundated, clothes and stuff floated away and a rising tide lifted all boots.
But I may be wrong. Maybe you meant another famous quote from Gatsby – “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the swimming stars.” The last two words would certainly refer to the two women you mention, Dawn Fraser and Frederica Pellegrini.
Knives Out said | February 25th 2009 @ 8:05am | Report comment
You’re right Clarissa. Nice intention though Spiro, I love Fitzgerald. I took an English Lit. degree which featured modern American writing. Great author. I believe that Gatsby ends with the historical and colour theme, continuing the old world/new world parallel. Something about Gatsby striving toward something self-perpetuating. Can’t recall exactly.
Off topic here, but are you a literature fan Clarissa? I’ve been reading the Rabbit four (five including novella) recently. Excellent stuff. Tragedy that Updike is gone.
Albert Ross said | February 25th 2009 @ 8:29am | Report comment
They were boats Fitzgerald was talking about at the end. The word “boots” is used only three times in GG (let Google be your friend) and towards the start of the book.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” is the last sentence in GG
Spiro Zavos said | February 25th 2009 @ 11:25am | Report comment
Albert Ross is right. Homer, in this case Spiro masquerading, has nodded. The Great Gatsby ends – ‘… tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further … And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’
Not quite as apposite as the Faulkner quote but it has certain relevance to the issue.
Now that we’ve cleared up the literary business, what about the idea of having a common stock of swim suits at the Olympics? Is this a good idea or a nonsense idea?i
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sheek said | February 25th 2009 @ 2:29pm | Report comment
Spiro,
There are times when technology is a downright intrusion, & this is a perfect example. Things have never been the same since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when the girls swam in high-cut, one-piece, figure-hugging swimsuits!
Well, except for one girl form an emerlad isle whose country has never before or since won a gold medal in the pool.
Clarissa said | February 25th 2009 @ 3:43pm | Report comment
KNIVES OUT – I read all the Rabbit novels as they were published, then read them all over again as a collection. And we don’t have to go off topic to talk about writing and sports. There are some excellent novels with sports as a background – Malamud’s The Natural,
Exley’s A Fan’s Notes (terrific) Schulberg’s The Harder They Fall, Gent’s Bang the Drum Slowly, Rosalyn Drexler’s To Smithereens (she also wrote Rocky) to name but a few
American titles, and the stories from the Canadian W.P. Kinsella. For me the best sports short story ever is by another American, Irwin Shaw’s The 80-Yard Run. What are your favorites?
SPIRO – Advantageous equipment is all over the sports scene – from road, track and mountain bikes, and the riders’ helmets, to sail boats, canoes, kayaks, racing sculls, even a sprinters’ track shoes can be designed for better performance. All this apparel/equipment improvement mocks the old records book, and the new swimsuits are one of the worst offenders. If we bring in standardization in all sports, will we then get equipment cheats?
Naturally.
Spiro Zavos said | February 25th 2009 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
Clarissa, off topic but the best rugby short story is A.P.Gaskell’s ‘The Big Match,’ with Conan Doyle’s ‘The case of the missing three-quarter’ being a sort of runner-up. ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’ is a sports classic. And David Storey’d ‘This Sporting Life’ goes close to being the best novel about any sport, in this case rugby league.
On the topic, though. I understand in yachting at the Olympics the competitors use standard yachts. The same should happen with swim suits and other equipment.
Knives Out said | February 25th 2009 @ 8:00pm | Report comment
Clarissa, Norman Mailer’s ‘The Fight’. I am a huge boxing fan but I think that particular moment in history transcends sport, although I do accept that the romanticisation of the event is slightly excessive. Continuing Gatsby’s European/American theme, and also by Mailer, I always loved ‘The Naked and the Dead’. In general terms I’ve long been a fan of Plimpton. I like the idea of sports reporters having a physical connection with the sport they are commenting upon. Plus he was in ‘The Simpsons’.
Re: the swimsuits. Personally I don’t like the idea of evolved equipment, yet in essence evolution is the key motivation for sport. From soccer to rugby, both league and union, the pitches, boots.. everything is improved. And whilst that means records will always be broken I believe that athletes like Usuain Bolt reflect a natural improvement anyhow. To that extent the chaff and wheat will always be easily separable. I suspect that Phelps would be just as great without the swimsuit. I agree with Spiro’s standardised equipment but surely that is the thin end of the wedge? Where does a rule like that stop? Do we have standardised running spikes next?
Clarissa said | February 26th 2009 @ 7:00am | Report comment
KNIVES OUT – Many people feel that Mailer was a better journo than he was a novelist. The Fight is indeed excellent, but my favorite piece of writing on boxing is A.J. Leibling’s portrait of Archie Moore called The Mongoose. Archie was the only fighter to battle both Marciano and Ali. His record is 194/26/8, and won his last fight at age 49. Plimpton went a few rounds with him. Leibling described Archie’s eyebrows as “Rising like storm clouds above the Sea of Azov.” A.J. was not one to settle for the usual cliches.
Knives Out said | February 26th 2009 @ 7:04am | Report comment
Allegedly 49 Clarissa!
I haven’t heard of Leibling. Excellent, many thanks.