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Eamon Sullivan’s long-time coach says swimming must roll back the clock on suit technology but admits such a move could put world records out of reach for more than a decade.
The sport’s governing body FINA has a major dilemma on its hands as it tries to rein in the high-tech suits that have assisted in the breaking of more than 100 world marks this year.
Grant Stoelwinder believed the controversial Speedo LZR Racer, the suit that ignited the record spree, shaved about 0.3 of a second off times per lap compared to previous suits – an enormous advance in sporting terms.
The coach of the world’s fastest male and female swimmers warned that newer suits and the combination of wearing multiple outfits were handing swimmers even more of an edge than provided alone by the Speedo LZR.
“The suits do make a difference and now we are getting to a point where some suits are starting to make a lot more of a difference,” he said.
“I don’t fool myself for one second as a coach and the trouble is as coaches some people think that swimmers are improving and you have to put it at about .3 per 50 with the Speedo suit on and I think some of them are even more.”
Stoelwinder, who recently took Libby Trickett under his wing, is the first Australian coach to publicly try to quantify the difference the new suits have made in performance.
He thought that only pre-2008 approved swimsuits should be allowed at next year’s Rome world championships.
“I would be really happy with that because we have now got to that point,” Stoelwinder said.
“But how do we check, do we need referees in the marshalling area making sure there is not two suits underneath?
“I never knew of it being done before (the Olympics), it is a can of worms that has been opened.
“We have to get some control for the credibility of our athletes, we have hugely talented athletes and the suits did make them swim unbelievably fast.
“Their credibility as athletes was being taken away because people were going `oh it is the suits’.”
FINA has called a crisis meeting on February 20 to discuss the burning issue with swimwear manufacturers as well as FINA officials, athletes, coaches and legal commissions.
Stoelwinder believed banning suits approved for competition this year would quickly put an end to the unprecedented levels of record breaking that followed the LZR’s launch in February.
“It might be even longer (than ten years) for some because we saw some of those marks that were around for so long that were broken – Janet Evans’ world record and (Alex) Popov’s world records,” he said.
FINA isn’t expected to erase records set in the super-suits as the outfits had been approved by the sporting body.
“Do we work out what the ratio is, I don’t think we can do that, unfortunately we are sort of stuck in a hard place at the moment and maybe some athletes might not have won gold medals that won gold medals,” Stoelwinder said.
“Probably a lot of things might have been different.”
FINA’s allowances on the high-tech suits has brought new manufacturers flooding into the sport with more than 20 expected to attend the February meeting.
“Now you have all these cowboys coming from everywhere,” Stoelwinder said.
Swimming Australia this month asked FINA to cease approval of any further swimsuits and brought in tough restrictions on outfits at Australian age-group competitions (18 or under).