"It brought the rest of the world closer to the top athletes," Michael Phelps's coach Bob Bowman said about the latest high-tech suits (Graham Hughes, Associated Press)
Michael Phelps will be at a “disadvantage” against athletes in the most advanced high-tech suits and might alter his program for the summer world championships because of FINA’s decision Monday not to restrict the suits, Phelps’s coach Bob Bowman said Tuesday.
Bowman said Phelps will continue to wear the Speedo LZR he wore in winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Summer Games but might bypass the 100-meter freestyle, an event he hoped to swim, because the dominant athletes in that event wear the most controversial new suits.
“Other people are just putting on a polyurethane suit and calling it progress,” Bowman said by phone from his office at the Meadowbrook Aquatic Club. “It’s a very tough situation for [Phelps] to be in … I don’t think he’ll lower his expectations of himself—he knows what he’s capable of—but the problem is he’s dealing with other people in other suits and the outcome of this meet is going to be in the balance.”
Phelps wears Speedo’s LZR, which was introduced early last year and ignited a technological arms race that has spawned dozens of new manufacturers producing faster and faster—and increasingly controversial—suits. The world governing body of swimming (FINA) decided to allow more than 300 suits from more than two dozen manufacturers into the July 25-Aug. 2 world championships in Rome, saying it did not have time to make definitive evaluations on which were performance-enhancing.
FINA, which banned only 10 suits, has said it would tighten up the swimsuit rules next year.
“We’re supposed to put the athletes first; this puts them absolutely last,” Bowman said. The new suits “brought the rest of the world closer to the top athletes … Other people get to skip steps by wearing the suits.”
Bowman, who is under contract with Speedo, said he has observed that the LZR Racer provides swimmers with about a 2 percent increase in performance while other new suits, such as the Jaked01, worn for at least three recent world records, produces an increase closer to 5 percent. The suits are designed to compress the muscles and, in some cases, add buoyancy.
“I feel the LZR is the fastest suit that reasonably represents what the sport is all about,” Bowman said. “Some of these other suits are far beyond … It just changes the whole mix. We don’t know what to expect. Clearly, no one should be under the false belief that [FINA] has secured a level playing field. I will guarantee it will not be a level playing field.”
Bowman said he and Phelps would decide on his planned world championship program this week, adding that he was extremely happy with Phelps’s performance in the 100 fly in Montreal Saturday. In that race, Phelps swam a personal best and nearly broke the world record while wearing a full LZR bodysuit.
In all previous 100 fly races, he wore just the pants.
Tags: Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps
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If the LZR increases the performance, then how was the playing field at the olimpics? Was it level? Not it was not. Too late for crying. Should have done it last year when the first performance enhancing suit was introduced!
Phelps/bowman are under contract with speedo – they are crying because Phelps isn’;t allowed to wear the new tech suits. The previous comment was absolutely right! Phelps was fine with the performance enhancing suit as long as it benefited him.
I don’t think that the comments that have been made so far reflect the whole story. First of all if you look at the top swimmers in most of the races in Beijing most of them wore the LZR. Second. In most of his races, Phelps wore leggings only not the full suit. In fact it was only in the free style races that he wore a full suit. In the 200 free and the 800 free relay the lead over the competitors was so significant that it could not be accounted for by the suit. In the closest race the 100 butterfly Cavic wore a full suit Phelps did not. In the 100 free relay the French swimmers wore full suits that were also hi tech. Third, some of the people breaking records had no previous record that would indicate that they were in a position to smash records the way that they did, many of them were not ranked that high. Phelps won 6 golds and 2 bronze in Athens and 7 golds in Worlds in Melbourne in 2007, all of his success came in the older style suits so you should not insinuate that the suits were that big a factor for him. Fourth, Phelps has been a middle distance swimmer all his career so that speed is not the only factor, endurance is obviously much more significant in middle distance then in the sprints. Therefore the sprinters stand to benefit the most from the hi tech suits. I have no doubt that Phelps and Bowman would have no problem if they ban all these suits and go back to the days when this was not a factor, I am not so sure others feel the same way, especially the suit makers. FINA has failed miserably on this one and all the increased interest in swimming that has resulted largely from Phelp’s performance in Beijing could end up being lost because of the gutless administrators of the sport, what a shame. So please don’t try to make Phelps the villain in this mess, he is still the greatest swimmer ever and I for one am glad to have been a witness to his greatness.
Nobody said, that Phelps won becouse of the suit. He would have won – I think – if everybody are in briefs. Maybe not all 8 medals, but no doubt he is the greatest ever. All you wrote are true, but this is not the case.
The case is, that last year the playing field was not level. You wrote, the alsmost everybody wore the LZR in the final. Yes. But how about those, who were not in the final becouse they didn’t have an LZR? How about those, who who fell to qualify for the final by 0.01-0.1 sec becouse the rest had an LZR and he/she did not? How about those, who could not get a medal, becouse some never-known-before-swimmer passed him/her with an LZR, what he/she could not have?
Was it a level playing field? Not it was not. And Bowman did not say a word agains it then – if I remember right.
And it is not a question, that how much is the level playing field damaged. It is damaged now, and it was damaged last year. By the faul of FINA. And Phelps is the greatest.
Last year, most swimmers could not buy a LZR, so how was the playing field equal? We need to go back to textile suits only! Otherwise, it is a free for all. I do not blame current athletes, they have to take advantage of the new technology until it is banned. The NCAA should be the first to outlaw these suits in competition.
At first I was all for the new suits for International competition only, as not every age-group, high school, or college swimmer can afford these new designs. However, now a true arms race has taken over the purity of the sport, and not just the suit designs, but with the contractual obligations of the swimmers to their suit companys getting in the way. Now I’m thinking “whatever happened to the swimming part???” You know the strokes, the training , the actual individual performance? The purity of this purest of sports is in serious jeapordy. It’s time to go back to guys in their skivvies and girls in T-backs wearing Lycra speedos shaving before a meet. Call me an old timer, but when you are essentially wearing an impenetrable prophylactic that doesn’t even allow you to feel the water on your skin we are getting away from the true nature of the act of swimming. It’s time for FINA to stop the madness before it trickles down into the younger ranks!
Phelps can not figure out with 100% certainty how to win the 100 m freestyle, that is what it comes down to. The European guys are putting up some remarkable times, and Phelps is not certain he has the speed to contend with them. I respect Phelps for going out and trying some different events, but no one can be the best at every single event. While Phelp’s times are nothing to be overly embarrassed about (lol), I do not think sprint freestyle is where he is strongest at.