Let me hear you say, This #@$! is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s...

At the moment, I'm recovering from swimming a 10K down in Miami, this morning. I went 2:25.00 (that's just under 2.5 hours) to finish 8^th overall (and beat all the girls--woo hoo!); race results are here.

As for the week, itself, most of my work stuff was spent catching up on things. In part, this meant trying to report on the 4 swimming Olympic Trials that happened last week (Canada, China, Great Britain and South Africa), as well as the Short Course Worlds that were this week (through today).

A good portion of my time was spent wading through articles on Speedo's controversial new suit, and whether/not FINA would change its stance on it. The reported issue with the suit is that a swimmer goes significantly faster in it than other types of suits; so much so that 39 World Records have been set in the just over 2 months since its introduction (that's a lot).

My own personal opinions:

1. Of course the suits are "legal": the manufacturers purposely designed it as close to the rules as possible, so that they can exploit whatever vulnerabilities there are in the rules.
2. To the notion that not enough attention is being paid to the athlete(s) who swam the performance, and too much to the suit: congratulations to the swimmers who got a new record. You, the athlete, played a part in achieving it (or, at least, hopefully the suit technology isn't at the point when any Joe Schmo could break a World Record just by putting a suit on). However, realize/recognize that the suit did play much more of a role in the new time than in the past, and until such time that the records adjust from this difference, your performance will partially be judged/based on this--the skew just needs to move. (Or just think of it as: would said swimmers still have set the record, or dropped it as much, had they not been wearing the suit?)
3. Having a suit at the big meet is not such an issue, thanks to FINA's rule which makes it so that the manufacturers have to do that (allow access to the suits for all) in order for the suits to be allowed in competition. However, the rules don't address (personal) sizing and/or prior availability, which is a huge deal--as reported recently with Jessica Schipper at the Australian Trials (as well as personal experience--imagine going to the biggest event of your life and having to wear a new-to-you outfit that you're not comfortable in, and getting to compete against those that are perfectly at home in it, because they've spent months testing it and perfecting it to what they prefer). This is not something the manufacturers are going to address: they want their athletes to have as much of an advantage as possible, so that they will be more likely to do better.
4. Lastly, I have a major problem with items being introduced so close to the Olympics. I'm of the belief that radical new products (i.e. new suit lines) should not be approved for competition within a year before the Olympics. Allowing them within the Olympic year prevents a level playing field.

And with that, I'll stop... without really going into:

• the new suit's costs ($600+);
• whether/not age group swimmers should wear them;
• or the more intriguing combination that the new fabric is reportedly prone to ripping and open water events already had ripped suits.... There could be 2 very revealing "marathon swimming" events in Beijing (by the way, the 10K events are now apparently officially called "marathon swimming" to make the name identification more friendly--and cause more confusion because the other open water events are still called "open water", including the 2 swims that are closer in time and distance to the running marathon. And the fact that no Ancient Greek ever swam from Marathon to Athens to justify naming a swimming distance after it, a la the run by Pheidippides).

And now I will attempt to find the radio-edit of today's song, with whistles and car horns rather than Ms. Stefani's swearing... hasta.


A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl