Amanda Beard, left, Natalie Coughlin, right, and Michael Phelps introduce Speedo's LZR in Feb. 2008. Under the rules FINA passed on Friday, these suits and all other long-length, high-tech swimsuits will no longer be legal in competition in 2010. (Kathy Willens, Associated Press)

FINA, swimming’s world governing body, finally figured out the way to determine which of the controversial long-length, high-tech swimsuits to restrict.

On Friday, it banned every last one.

With a nearly unanimous vote, FINA’s member nations accepted a proposal initiated by the United States to allow only waist-to-knee suits, known as “jammers,” for men, and shoulder-to-knee suits for women, beginning in competition next year.

The move was far more dramatic than expected and allowed the sport’s leaders largely to circumvent vexing questions of fabrics, impermeability and buoyancy by focusing on the length of the suits. Though FINA also noted that the suits must be “textile,” it did not immediately define the term, leaving that issue to be hashed out.

Though the changes won’t go into effect at the world championships that begin Sunday in Rome, they will hang over the competition, seemingly wagging a finger at every world-record setter wearing a suit that will never be allowed again in a major swimming championship.

“A lot of us are joking that this might be the fastest we ever go,” American backstroker Aaron Peirsol told the Associated Press in Rome. “We might as well enjoy this year.”

FINA also decided that the world records set by those wearing the long-length swimsuits would stand, which means the sport is likely facing several years largely bereft of record breaking. More than 130 world records have been broken in high-tech suits since last early year when Speedo launched its LZR, a suit worn by nearly every medal winner at the 2008 Summer Games and which set off the current technological arms race.

“Some of these records might not be broken for a long, long time,” Peirsol said.

Friday’s decision came from FINA’s congress, made up of the world’s 100-plus swimming nations, rather than FINA’s bureau, the executive arm of the organization that tried – but failed – to rein in the suits earlier this year.

FINA’s bureau said it would restrict suits this past spring in time for the world championships, but after a month-long review of 136 suits it gave up and let them all in, increasing to 400 the number of allowed suits at next week’s meet – and raising the ire of many member nations, particularly the United States and Australia.

Many coaches and officials have equated the suit issue with the doping problems that plagued the sport in decades past.

Friday’s decision will affect all of the suit makers. Speedo athletes have argued that the LZR is less offensive than the slew of 100-percent polyurethane suits, such as the Jaked01 and the Adidas Hydrofoil, that have been released in the last year, but no suit maker will be immune from the ban’s effects.

The change will trickle down to the amateur level and, likely, the collegiate level as well. USA Swimming abides by the international governing body rules, meaning all USA Swimming-sanctioned youth competitions will face the same restrictions next year. The NCAA is expected to adopt FINA’s policy since it has followed the international guidelines in the past.

Though USA Swimming banned long-length suits for children 12-and-under last fall, the suits have been increasingly prevalent at older age-group meets. Dozens of swimmers wore various varieties of the suits at the recent Potomac Valley Long-Course Senior Championships.

Michael Phelps won three events and set one world record at last week's U.S. championships wearing a Speedo suit considered by many to be antiquated. (Michael Conroy, Associated Press)

Swimmers and coaches feared the U.S. swimming championships in Indianapolis last week would be a high-tech farce, taken over by ordinary swimmers helped to surprising victories by technologically over-the-top swimsuits. But while the newest suits proved enormously popular and successful for many swimmers, they didn’t throw the competition into chaos.

An unofficial analysis of last week’s event shows that 72 percent of athletes who reached the 26 event finals, and whose suits could be identified, competed in recently released versions made by Jaked, Arena, Tyr or BlueSeventy. Yet swimmers wearing older models — in most cases because of contractual obligations to the company Speedo — won more gold and silver medals than athletes in other suits and therefore earned more qualifying spots for the upcoming world championships in Rome.

About 33 percent of U.S. gold and silver medal winners wore Speedo’s LZR, the acclaimed suit of last year that is now perceived as out-moded, compared to about 25 percent for Jaked, 24 percent for Arena models, 9 percent for Tyr and 8 for BlueSeventy.

“I don’t think it’s a slow suit at all for me,” said Cullen Jones, who wore the LZR to set an American record in a swim-off for second place in the 50-meter freestyle after wearing a Jaked01 in the final. “When I jump off the blocks, I feel like I’m in a much tighter line. At the same time, when I get tired, suits that help me float, I like that, too.”

Not only are the most advanced new suits tight-fitting and designed to make swimmers slip faster through the water, but many are also impermeable and buoyant, helping with flotation.

The brand of suits on 29 of the 208 finalists and two of the 52 first- and second-place finishers at the U.S. championships could not be determined.

The controversy over the long-length suits, which has simmered in recent years, blew up a month ago when the world governing body of swimming, FINA, reversed course on plans to restrict the increasingly high-tech suits at the July 26-Aug. 2 world championships.

In anticipation of the promised clamp-down, Speedo did not create a more advanced suit this year. When FINA decided to approve 400 suits from more than two dozen manufacturers for this summer, athletes under contract with Speedo flew into near-panic.

Despite the hubbub, Michael Phelps, Speedo’s highest-paid athlete, wore his Speedo LZR and won three titles while also breaking a four-year-old world record. Jones, a Nike-sponsored athlete, swapped the Jaked for the LZR, and Ryan Lochte and Dana Vollmer each won two finals while wearing LZRs.

There were other hints that the suits did not disrupt the competition as feared: Three world records were set, all by men who had set them previously. The total was arguably lower than expected at such a critical meet.

That’s not to say the newest of the high-tech suits did not have a major impact. About a half-dozen of the U.S. team’s biggest stars did not compete or were not in top form, so although international marks did not fall in abundance, the meet was ripe with personal bests and, in some cases, phenomenal drops in times from less accomplished athletes.

Many said they did not like the new suits but that they felt compelled to try to get every advantage they could. Plenty did. Aaron Peirsol, who set two world records, wore Arena’s new X-Glide suit, as did Eric Shanteau, who set two American records in the 200-meter breaststroke, and Rebecca Soni, who won a pair of breaststroke events. Nathan Adrian won the 50- and 100-meter freestyle in the coveted Jaked01.

More finalists at the U.S. championships — about 27 percent — wore Jaked than any other brand.

“FINA has put us in a very difficult situation,” said Dara Torres, a Speedo-contracted swimmer who wore a Jaked01 to win the women’s 50 free. “It’s unfortunate they kept going back and forth, back and forth on their decision. They should have just stuck with one thing. Now, it makes it tough for swimmers to decide what to do.”

Many of the athletes who wore the newest suits did so almost apologetically.

“Obviously, the suits help,” Shanteau said. “That’s more than obvious. But I have definitely put in the work.”

Despite being a Speedo-sponsored athlete, Lochte said he had tested out all of the new suits. The Jaked, he said, worked particularly well on the underwater portion of races, such as starts and while coming off the walls. The Arena, he said, was the opposite, doing more to keep the swimmer above the water.

But Lochte, who won the 200 and 400 medleys in the LZR, said he actually preferred his old suit to the newer models.

“Everybody’s all hyping the new Arena, the new Jaked” suits, he said. “I’m kind of trying to stick it to them.”

U.S. swimmers won't get to wear adidas' hot new Hydrofoil, which Germany's Britta Steffen called a "weird piece of equipment" after using it to set a 100m freestyle world record. (Michael Sohn, Associated Press)

As if they weren’t confused enough, U.S. swimmers can forget about trying out the coveted new adidas Hydrofoil suit — which has been responsible for a host of recent records — at the U.S. championships in Indianapolis next week.

The German-based adidas did not submit an application by Wednesday’s deadline to have its suits available at the event, which serves as the trials for the world championships at the end of this month, a USA Swimming spokesperson confirmed Thursday.

Germany’s Britta Steffen set a world record (52.85) in the 100-meter freestyle heats last week at the German championships while wearing the Hydrofoil, then improved upon the mark in Saturday’s final (52.56). After, she described the suit as a “weird piece of equipment”; said she thought it should be banned; and remarked that she felt like a “speedboat in water” wearing it.

Since the suit was approved for use at by the sport’s governing body (FINA) at the July 25-Aug. 2 world swimming championships in Rome, U.S. officials wanted to make sure all U.S. athletes had access to it and the other super suits that recently have been launched.

USA Swimming received applications from 12 other suit manufacturers, including Tyr, Jaked, blueseventy and Speedo, before Wednesday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline. USA Swimming spokesperson Jamie Fabos Olson said she did not know why adidas did not apply; it was sent a memo June 5 requesting that it submit the required paperwork.

Linda Murphy, a spokesperson for adidas, said Friday the company decided not to attend out of respect for the contract USA Swimming has with Speedo.

“We don’t sponsor the U.S. swimming federation,” Murphy said by phone from the company’s office in Herzogenaurach, Germany. “They are sponsored by one of our rivals. That’s the reason” we are not attending.

Conspiracy theories surely will abound, as U.S. athletes are free to wear any suit they like, and Australian swimmers also reportedly have been unable to get their hands on the Hydrofoils. An adidas marketing agent told the Australian team the company would be unable to provide a supply of the new suits until three days before the world championships, The Age in Australia reported this week.

Adidas does not have a contract with any national federations, Murphy said, but its sponsored athletes include Steffen; Germany’s Helge Meeuw; France’s Coralie Balmy; British swimmers Jo Jackson and David Davies; and Australians Cate Campbell and Jessicah Schipper.

Meeuw and Davies set national records in the suit.

The company developed the Hydrofoil, which it claims “molds the swimmer into a more streamlined shape and helps them move more efficiently through the water,” after the 2008 Summer Games.

"It's frustrating and confusing," two-time Olympian Katie Hoff said about FINA's decision to allow 400 high-tech suits into this summer's world championships. (Jonathan Newton, The Washington Post)

Last Saturday proved an intense training day among the professional swimmers that train under Eddie Reese at the University of Texas. As they prepared for next week’s U.S. championships in Indianapolis, Reese stood on the pool deck with a stopwatch, clocking lap after lap as Olympians Aaron Peirsol, Eric Shanteau and Garrett Weber-Gale raced up and down the pool.

They weren’t, though, working on technique or form or anything having to do with actual swimming. They were trying out different varieties of the latest high-tech swimsuits approved last week for use at this summer’s world championships.

It was something of a judgment day among the swimmers, as each tried to figure out which now-legal — but still highly controversial — suit most aided his performance.

Reese, the head men’s coach on last year’s U.S. Olympic swimming team, can barely stomach what is happening. Yet he wants to ensure his swimmers have every possible advantage as they enter the meet that will determine who represents the United States at the world championships in Rome later this month.

“It’s a mess,” Reese said by phone from Austin. “The suit issue is like nothing I’ve ever seen in the sport. You’re going to have people going to our world championship trials, putting on a suit there that they’ve never seen, and hoping it works.”

He and other U.S. coaches have been openly disdainful of last week’s decision by the sport’s world governing body (FINA) to approve 400 suits, some of which were originally rejected and have produced mind-boggling drops in times.

Though USA Swimming voiced its “disappointment” with FINA’s ruling, it decided to allow all of the suits at the U.S. championships that begin Tuesday.

In the wake of that decision, American athletes who had been largely comfortable with the suits they wore at last summer’s Olympics plunged either into a frenzy of suit-analysis or a pit of fear. Many have tried to get their hands on the latest, most technically advanced new suits. Others, largely for contract reasons, are bound to older models but well aware of the world records being set weekly across the globe. They are concerned they are being left behind.

Without the suits, “you would have picked the fastest and fittest team,” Reese said. “Now, if someone doesn’t pick the right suit, we can end up with people who did a better job of selecting a suit. That’s scary.”

Reese said his athletes tried out many of the cutting-edge new suits from Jaked, blueseventy, adidas and Tyr during their recent testing. Speedo, which set off the technological race when it introduced the LZR Racer last year, does not have a new product to rival the more controversial ones introduced in recent months.

Mark Schubert, USA Swimming’s National Team Head Coach, said during a conference call Wednesday that U.S. officials did not consider restricting the suits at the U.S. championships. They believed athletes should be allowed to wear whatever approved suits they wished — as long as they were commercially and readily available.

Even so, Schubert said, he doesn’t like the direction the sport has taken.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that some world records have been broken over the last two years are due to the athletes, and some world records are more due to the suits,” Schubert said. “I don’t think a world record should be because of a suit … I just don’t think we’ve been good stewards of the sport to allow what has happened.”

Swimming insiders speculate that some of the sport’s biggest stars might be the most negatively affected. Many top athletes—including 14-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps—have deals with Speedo, which in less than a year went from the company at the forefront of the technology to one stuck with a seemingly archaic product.

Katie Hoff, also a Speedo-sponsored athlete who trains along with Phelps at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, said she and Phelps haven’t tried any other suits. They are not experimenting. She is, however, worrying. Every time she hears about another stunning world record in another super-advanced suit, she said, she second-guesses her approach.

“Everyone wants to be on an even playing field when they step on the blocks,” said Hoff, a three-time Olympic medalist, during a phone interview. “Based on everything that’s been happening, I honestly don’t think that’s going to be the case at the trials or the world championships …  It’s frustrating and confusing.”

Hoff said she doesn’t want to race in a suit that will act, in effect, as a flotation device. Yet she fears her rivals will, and that her approach is naïve.

Next week’s “is going to be a very interesting meet,” she said. “I don’t know what to expect at all …  It’s a mess, even for the athletes wearing the suits. Look at the position [FINA is] putting everyone in. People feel like they have no choice. They are backed into a corner.”

Bowman, who is paid by Speedo, has argued that Speedo’s LZR is among the technically advanced suits that is not over-the-top in its performance-enhancement. He said Phelps and others might be at a disadvantage against “people [who] are just putting on a polyurethane suit and calling it progress.”

Dara Torres, who competed in her fifth Olympics last summer at age 41, said she doesn’t like the high-tech suits but will consider all of the products available for the U.S. championships.

“Some of these suit manufacturers have done an awesome job of creating swimsuits, but it seems like we’re years ahead of where we should be, and I personally wouldn’t mind going back to the old-school days,” Torres said during Wednesday’s conference call, “and then you could really see who the fast swimmers are.”