High Tech Suits

News from Yesterday!

It looked like FINA was taking a strong look at the newest wave of high-tech swim suits and had initially banned 100+ a earlier in the spring. See John Leonard's article "What's up with the Suits?" from March on the ASCA web site. You need to scroll down a ways to get to the initial article. There are also some other updates as you scroll.

Unfortunately, it appears that almost all of the suits have since been reinstated. Here is an article from the June 23rd edition of the Washington Post.

It is unfortunate that this controversy continues. Yes, technology will always impact sports and just about every other sport continues to evolve with technology. The big difference that I see is that we have now completely changed the goal of swimming. Until last year, the goal was how fast can a swimmer pull his or her body through the water. Now, it is more like, how fast can she pull the suit through the water. The swimmer is now encapsulated in a shell that eliminates many of the physical challenges faced before the new suits.

People have said it is all about the athlete and not the suit. Clearly you still need to be a great athlete to swim at the elite level, but just as clearly with significantly more records falling in the past year, it is about the suit. Times have dropped so significantly that it is not about some new training or swimming technique.

"This is sport that used to be about technique and training and talent, and now it's going to be about technology" until the rules are tightened, said Bob Bowman, who coaches Phelps and fellow Olympian Katie Hoff, by phone. "I'm also concerned about the long-term ramifications for the sport that come out of this period of free-for-all. Once records are set, it's hard to get them back. . . . It's not going to be just six months of chaos, we're going to be paying for this for a decade." (Washington Post article).

And unfortunately, all swimmers are going to be paying for this, literally, dropping $300-$500 for a suit that lasts at best for a weekend championship. This will certainly make for an uneven playing field where results will reflect as much about the training as the ability to purchase super suits.

Hopefully FINA will realize what the focus of the sport should be!

Best,
DA

Miki Yoshida Named to National SAAC

Raising Junior Miki Yoshida has been selected to represent both the NEWMAC and GNAC conferences on the NCAA Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). She will serve on the committee for the next three years. Miki also represented Mount Holyoke at the NCAA National Student-Athlete Development Conference in Orlando, Fla at the beginning of June

Miki is spending the next month in Japan working as an intern for an international rugby tournament.

See the full story.

Best,

DA