Short? Check. No zippers? Check. No panels? Check. We went back to 2004 to find Michael Phelps in a legal suit. (Gail Burton, Associated Press)
U.S. and local swimming officials can’t tell you exactly what “textile” means, so they are not going to try — despite their decision Saturday to ban all non-textile suits that extend beyond the waist and knees for men, and neck and knees for women Oct. 1.
Their message to swimmers and parents trying to figure out the new USA Swimming standards as the fall club season approaches: If a suit looks legal, it probably is.
Suits will be only visually inspected at Potomac Valley Swimming meets. There will be no touching of suits or close scrutiny of materials.
Until the world governing body of swimming (FINA) develops a comprehensive banned-suit list — which is not expected before Jan. 1 — competition suits that appear to be within the guidelines will be allowed at age-group meets, officials say.
“We’re not going to be checking materials at this point,” said Marie Beth “Boots” Hall, the officials representative on the Potomac Valley Swimming board of directors. “At this point, any suits currently made that fit the size description will be passed.”
More specifically, USA Swimming President Jim Wood said, officials will be advised to make judgments in three areas: Is the suit the appropriate length? Is it free of zippers or fasteners, which are now banned? And is the material, whatever it is, the same throughout — in other words, no visible panels, such as those found on Speedo’s popular LZR?
The answer to all three questions must be yes.
“We don’t want to go around feeling materials, but those three [evaluations] are pretty easily made,” Wood said.
There is one notable difference between the rules adopted Saturday and international rules: small suits worn underneath outer suits for modesty reasons will be permitted at U.S. meets. In other words, men will be allowed to don briefs and women, sports bras. (Note: Art Davis, PVS Administrative Division Vice-Chair, contacted us to clarify that the modesty suits will be allowed only at age-group meets, those for athletes 18-and-under. At open meets, such as the Red & Black Meet at the University of Maryland next month, modesty suits will not be permitted.)
PVS officials and referees will be tutored on the new standards and how to administer them at the Oct. 3 PVS Swimposium at Georgetown Prep. A day later, the PVS season gets underway with the 2009 All-Freestyle Meet at the Fairland Aquatics Center.
Despite the haziness surrounding the new restrictions, officials say they hope the process doesn’t get bogged down with arguments or controversy. If a swimmer shows up in a suit in clear violation of the rules, an attempt will be made to address the problem before swimmers get to the starting blocks to avoid controversy or delays, Hall said.
“We will try to catch it early and have them go into the changing room and change into an appropriate suit,” she said. “You don’t want to wait until they get up on the blocks and swim, and have to disqualify them.”
FINA’s membership approved the new suit rules in July, and the organization’s Bureau set a Jan. 1 implementation date. USA Swimming’s membership almost unanimously approved moving up the date to Oct. 1.
Tags: Michael Phelps
stats corner
The current USA Swimming rule allows only a single suit. The new amendement did not change that so it is iccrect to say you are allowed to wear a brief under the jammer.
Hey Anon, thanks, but modesty suits are indeed allowed in USA Swimming events. That’s straight from the mouth of the USA Swimming President Jim Wood and it’s different from the FINA rule. In FINA events, USA swimmers would have to ditch the second suits. Wood adds, by the way, “that it sure can’t be a second technical suit.” It’s gotta be something small, for modesty only.
Therese Alshammar was DQ for wearing a modesty suit underneath her main suit on May 19th 2009 in Sydney Asutralia [1]
USA Swimming’s President may think so but FINA clarified it further and said: “That means that nothing must be worn underneath,” Marculescu told the website. “One suit only. That’s it.”. [2]
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_sport/olympics_2012/794/79440/story7944084.shtml?%28none%29
[2] http://www.sport24.co.za/Content/OtherSport/262/a79ae339a80c46309b1dec0767513bbf//FINA_outlaws_modesty_briefs
SCAQ Tony
This relates to US sanctioned meets only, Australia rarely holds US sanctioned meets and this instruction postdates that meet..
Check out the following link to the latest pdf which states,
205.10 SWIMWEAR IN AGE GROUP COMPETITION (effective 9/19/09)
1 For age group competitions, it is permissible for an athlete to wear a single set of garments
underneath his or her competition swimsuit for modesty and/or privacy reasons.
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/a972702d-31da-40b3-81de-dc81018033d6/Letter%20to%20members%20re%20swimsuits.pdf
So, FINA is the “world” governing body, correct? And the US is a part of the “world,” correct? So, how does USA Swimming supercede FINA regulations? I would have to suspect that if FINA says “one suit” then you wear one suit; that US local meets do not make up their own rules.
BTW, why would you want to wear two swim suits in a meet? Modesty reasons? Only in the US!
Okay so that makes sense… No Jaked, LZRs, Blueseventys, etc, but how about the FSII and FS Pro? Those are textile, but they have the scales that FINA is currently going to ban… How would people read and react to that?
Also, are the new USA rules simply no fasteners, the suit shape, and textile only? Or are they going off the exact FINA rules? If they are going off the FINA rules, what is to be considered an seam that is not a “Functional seam that creates outside shapes”? I just hope that there is a clearer response to questions by the time J-Nats and Sectionals come around in December…
Also, itsnt that a little sexist only giving men knee to waist, but giving women knee to shoulder? The knee to waist part isnt required on a female swimsuit… Why not do what masters is doing and allow the same shape (knee to shoulder) for men and women? I mean, isnt everyone talking about equality of the sexes? Being the US and all, I will be VERY suprised if USA swimming doesnt get hit with a sex discrimination lawsuit…
Brendan,
Yours is the question I’ve been asking, and no one seems to have an answer. This is the same for HS swimming– in the FINA ban it talks about the textile needing to flat, and no scales. But in the super vague bans we seem to be adopting here in the US, that is up for debate… leaving all Fastskins and FSPros up in the air. Are they legal or not? Are we banning just polyurethane, or permeability as well?
jay and brendan,
i am a senior (13-up) coach in new jersey and have been asking the same exact question as you, and as you guys, have not been able to get a definitive answer from anyone. most of my swimmers raced in FSpro legskins and one kid raced in an LZR legskin and all need new suits for this coming season. I have tried to interpret the rule on my own, and I’ll share what I’ve found to see what everyone else thinks.
i hope to get a gauge on the level of scrutiny with which my own LSC intends to examine suits on deck and assuming it’s the same, based on the definition of “textile” and the comments of the PVS officials in this article, I am going to assume for now that the original Fastskins/FSIIs and FSPros are legal until the official banned suit list is released by FINA after the new year.
All three of these suits are woven and have seams. I had not heard anything about trying to get rid of the scales present on the Fastskin and FSIIs, but I don’t think the FSPro contains scales. The material of the FSPro actually feels very similar to the original paper suits from the 90s and is completely flat. I really think that FINA wants to mainly target the area the suit covers as well as the polyeurethane and neoprene suits that are basically rubber. i would have to get this confirmed, but based on the descriptions I’ve read, i don’t even think the LZR pulse fabric would be illegal if it was woven and not synthetically bonded together. Speedo said the LZR was the “first ever fully bonded (seamless) suit”…the bonding and rubber panels on the LZR were what made it illegal and then the jaked and arena suits took it a step further by making the entire suit that material.
According to to Speedo’s website the FSpro, which is made of the first version of the LZR pulse fabric, is constructed from a “high density microfiber fabric woven from chlorine resistent elastane (lycra) and ultra fine nylon thread…”
based on this description of the fabric, i think this constitutes a textile-based suit and as long as you’re wearing the proper coverage area, should be legal.
Anyone agree/disagree?
Roman Sludnov was DQ’d at the Central Sectional meet for wearing a drag suit over his brief when his brief “malfunctioned.” Was he wrongly disqualified? Just askin’.
This is actually the second time that someone at USA Swimming trying to allow the modesty suits in USA Swimming meets and the first time happened right after FINA announced the one suit rule last year. A few weeks later, the USA Swimming issued a clarification letter to coaches and officials to backpedal on this and so you see DQ’s such as Slodnov at the sectionals. The same people tried again at the convention this year and we shall see what happens next. The technical rule has to be totally consistent with FINA rule, there is no ifs or buts
. It is exactly the same as PVS cannot ban tech suits on their own 
.
Mike, I agre I think the Pro should be fine it falls in the new gide lines for the fabric.
As for the two suit rule. If his speedo brief malfunctioned and he had no time to change under the modsty rule. He should not have been DQ’d. This rule is very hard to define as an offical and I think USA swimming need to make it a little clearer.
As far a I know USA swimming do not have to be consistant with FINA if it is a USA swimming sanctioned meet.
Speedo Fastskin Pro is theoretically ok in terms of fabric. However, Pro legskins are not legal because it goes below the knee. Speedo never marketed the Pro Jammer in the US. Since the Pro Jammer is not readily available, it may not be legal for that reason.
anon, i don’t really see how the FSpro not being readily available in the US would make it illegal. also, now that the LZR and FSPro legs are no longer legal, I’d expect Speedo to make the jammers VERY available.
Mike,
So are you saying that if Speedo were to take the fabric that makes up the panels on the LZR, and sew them instead of bond them, then a LZR jammer would be legal? Or are you saying that the non-panel fabric would be the part that is legal?
I do know for a fact that the LZR base material is for all intents and purposes, the same as the FSpro, except it is bonded instead of sewn.
When it comes down to it, does anyone have any concrete evidence on what Speedo and the other suit companies are saying about new suits and the rules? Ive heard Speedo say that they are opposed to any suit ban, but LZRs are 50% off on their webpage… Anyone have any press releases of some sort that they could give me the link to?
Longwinded way of saying it, but I agree with you on the fact that a Pro jammer would be legal.
brendan,
i am saying that they NON-PANEL fabric from the LZR (the black fabric) might be legal if it was sewn, based on the description of that LZR pulse fabric. i am pretty sure the panels on the LZR are polyurathane… and that is one of the major materials FINA wants to ban.
i am also thinking that for the moment, speedo must THINK the FSpro is going to be legal because while the LZRs and FSpro legs have dropped significantly in price, the FS pro jammer has skyrocketed to $180. I am pretty sure last year the FSpro legs were $150 last year. that has to be some evidence that Speedo plans on the FSpro jammer being legal, at least for now.
I agree. The pro jammer and knee skin for women have gone up in price over the last week. I think this is an indication that it will be the best legal suit available.
The problem with the FSPro is not the underlying fabric. The following is directly from the Speedo website:
“Unique water repellent coating bonded to the LSR Pulse fabric via patented plasma process. Bonding process produces durable and long lasting water repellent finish.”
How does that pass the permeability test?
not sure it will. but it looks like until FINA releases an official list of banned suits, they wont be testing for permeability. just visual inspections.
Do you need a “test” when the manufacturer states in its literature that the suit repels water?
While it may repel water, that could be based on the fact that the fabric is swen tightly. I mean, some nicely done shirts repel water for a bit (the water beads) then while the beads sit, it soaks in. I think the Pulse fabric will be legal… Now im wondering when the sex discrimination lawsuit will hit because girls get more suit than guys…
On the sex descrimination lawsuit, I’d want to hear how the one requiring men and women to have the same qualifying standards comes out, before I predict the one on differing suit shapes. Or said another way, not all differences are improper discrimination.
Hey I’ve got an idea, lets all stop suing each other, and just swim!
I love all this swim talk …