Back to the Brief

I am sorry if you just bought a $500 suit. You won’t be wearing it for any competitions…that count. FINA and the NCAA have new definitions of a legal suit. All materials must be textile, a.k.a. woven fabric. Men cannot wear a suit that extends above the waist or below the top of the kneecap. Women can’t wear suits that extend beyond the shoulder and beyond the top of the kneecap. No more polyurethane. I can’t imagine the huge sums of money that companies like Arena, TYR, and Speedo are going to lose with this decision. Of course there is probably a wave of lawsuits in the works, but all those fancy suits aren’t going to be sold if the records set in them don’t count. Never mind that, starting January 1, 2010, if you show up behind the block with one of those things on you aren’t even getting in the water.

So the new school is suddenly going old school in order to be legally cleared for competition. The time of the jammer and the brief is back and I think swimming will be better because of this. Let the current world records stand. They may stand for a while, but humans’ ability to swim is evolving, albeit slightly slower than the high-tech suits, but we are going to surpass those times eventually. And, I might add, we will look so much better doing it in a brief than a bodysuit.