Backward Sports

For the past week, we have been getting updates from the World Swimming Championships in Rome. There was even tape delay coverage on Saturday and Sunday, which is awful because all of the results had been reported, but that is beside the point. The bigger issue during these championship was the introduction of the super swim suit.

This new suit is made of polyurethane which allows the swimmers to be more buoyant, staying on top of the water so there is less drag and making them go faster. As a result 39 new world records at last count had been set. This should have been a proud moment for FINA. The sport was getting lots of attention and for good reasons - speed and performance not drugs.

Instead of embracing the new suit and the speed that comes with them, what does FINA do? They decide to ban them. No date was proposed for the ban was set and this caused lots of talk about how to handle all the world records that were being set. Would anyone ever come close to these times again? Should an asterisk be placed next to the records that were set by swimmers wearing the new suits? Then FINA moved up the ban date to January 1.

Why is FINA banning the suit? In my opinion, it is because one of the biggest sponsors, Speedo, isn't one of the makers of this new suit. Cash rules everything around and when one of the biggest contributors of cash isn't getting the return on what they are contributing to the sport they will seek change.

Should FINA ban the suit? Never. Advancement in technology happens in all sport. It is what makes them fun to follow. Whether it is new uniform fabrics like dri-fit, different wood for baseball bats or different material for hockey sticks. All these things have contributed to improving the sports. There is no way any major sport would turn back the clock to level the playing field.

Unfortunately, FINA isn't the only sport organization living in the past. The Formula 1 Association has a ban on "in season testing" for their race cars which meant that Ferrari - which lost Felippe Massa to injury last weekend and are replacing him with former world champion Michael Schumacher couldn't put him in the new car to test. Schumacher who is coming out of retirement to help his old team needed to race with a privately owned Ferrari to get back in the groove. Similar to FINA - why wouldn't the FIA let a driver and a team improve themselves during off weeks?

Isn't the whole purpose of these two sports to get faster and by banning the new swim suits and not allowing in season testing the sporting organizations are holding back development.