I devoted two columns to the controversy. We critics of the high-tech swimsuits were ignored or branded as Luddites opposed to progress. Our prospects of returning the sport to the athletes and delivering it from the brainy scientists who were designing the high-tech adulterations of the athletes' equipage looked grim. But at last week's world championships in Rome, we were vindicated beyond our dreams. World champions, such as Michael Phelps, complained that they were beaten not by better swimmers, but by technological innovations in their rivals' high-tech swimsuits. A huge number of world records were broken and attributed not to the athletes' superior performances, but to which swimsuit each athlete was wearing. In an absurdity that we critics had warned about, it appeared that fat swimmers were getting an advantage from the suits that better-conditioned swimmers could not get. As we predicted, technology that was irrelevant to athleticism was diminishing the athletes.
FINA has answered to right reason and announced a ban on the suits beginning next year. The turnaround came rapidly after our National Collegiate Athletic Association banned the suits from American collegiate competition, recognizing that they were a burden to strained athletic budgets (they cost hundreds of dollars more than the $30 or $50 textile suits that men and women usually wear), wore out after a dozen or so races, and, as we critics had said, were adventitious to the sport. Now a fellow veteran of this War of the Swimsuits, Bob Groseth, is advising the NCAA rules committee on the standards for next year's non-tech suits. He will be executive director, beginning this autumn, of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, and he says the standards will establish which materials can be used in the suits (textile of some sort) and the amount of the athletes' anatomy to be covered. The high-tech suits could sheath the athletes from shoulders to ankles.
You will note that as with other vindications I have enjoyed over the years, I do not gloat. I shall, however, express my gratitude and respect. The world of competitive swimming has protected the integrity of the sport. Once again, my belief that sports are often more honest endeavors than politics has been rewarded.