XIII FINA World Championships
Written by MC Homer, Friday July 31 2009
The 2009 World Aquatic Championships are being held in Italy, July 17th through August 2nd. Like the Olympics, athletes compete for their country during these two and a half weeks of competitions. Water polo, synchronized swimming, diving, swimming, as well as open water swimming are all on the schedule for these half human, half fish athletes. A record 2,556 athletes from 185 countries will call Rome home for 16 days.
Unless you are a die-hard fan of the lesser aquatic sports, otherwise know as anything other than Michael Phelps, you may not be aware that this FINA World Championships, as it is also known, is held every other year. This year’s event was preceded by the 2007 event held in Melbourne, Australia. In 2011, mermen and mermaids from all around the globe will descend on Shanghai, China.
I will be honest with you, because if you are familiar with my work, you may know that I believe that to be the best policy. I am not a fan of swimming. To me, it is simply a marathon in water. I’d rather wait for my pot of water to boil (mac ‘n’ cheese, here I come!) then watch my freshly painted walls dry. So why am I writing about it then? I am glad you asked. There are a couple reasons actually. The first being the ridiculous amount of records that are broken every time a swimmer jumps in the pool and secondly, the controversial swimsuits that some athletes wear. The two may actually be one and the same.
What is up with swimmers and breaking world records? It has gotten to the point that if you win a race and don’t break the world record, you suck. During these FINA championships, 29 new world records have been set, and the swimming events have not yet finished! Already having surpassed the 25 world records that were broke in Beijing, China during the recent Summer Olympics, these WACs (World Aquatic Championships) are making a mockery of the sport.
A major reason for all of the fallen records is the swimsuits. New suits made of polyurethane are said to be more buoyant than other suits. It may not sound like a big deal, but remember back to when you first learned to swim with that foam board. It did not take nearly as much effort to swim with that extra buoyancy. Less resistance from the water can give you a huge advantage. Swimsuit makers like Jaked and Arena make suits that are 100% polyurethane. Even the Speedo LZR Racer than Mr. Phelps uses, was one of the original technologically advanced suits.
To compare this year’s WACs to the events in 2007, only 15 world records were set two years ago, and 15 is still outrageous. One of the sport’s biggest female names, Janet Evans, says it has gotten out of control. She compares it to when she swam against the East Germans during the time when they were allegedly doping (which they were later found guilty of). “Basically, it’s technical doping,” she says.
There has even been talk about banning some of these ‘super suits’ sometime in 2010. Why not now? Why not just make every swimmer don the classic Speedo, you know, the banana hammock. That way we know they are competing solely on skill instead of having the help of technology.
I’m sure the governing body of swimming is not completely opposed to these new suits because it brings in new fans to the sport. Let’s face it, swimming is not exactly what anyone would call a mainstream sport. Negative or not, it is said that any publicity is good publicity.
The face of swimming, Michael Phelps, who as I noted before, wears the Speedo LZR Racer, one of the original swimsuits to be considered technologically advanced, may be done with swimming until they pull these suits from competition, at least his coach has threatened it.
The German who beat Phelps, even acknowledged that the suit gave him an advantage saying, “the suit makes a difference… I hope there can be a time when I can beat Michael Phelps without these suits. I hope next year. I hope it’s really soon.” Paul Biedermann, the now-infamous Phelps killer, said that? Sounds to me like he feels a little embarrassed that he wore that suit. He then went on to say, “it’s going to be fun next year when swimming is back to swimming.” Call me a dummy, but, why didn’t he pass on wearing his super suit during these championships? Then Biedermann said this, “it’s not my problem, it’s the problem of FINA. They should handle it really fast.” What a chump.
How is that different than taking steroids before they were illegal? Everyone who took them knew they were being given more than a slight advantage, but because there were no rules against it, who cares? I’m not so sure if there has ever been honor in sports, although, elders love to tell us about how it was all about honor “back in my day.”
Do not get me wrong, it’s not just swimming. Track and field has more than it’s share of problems. We are all aware of baseball, as we have been beaten senseless by the media over steroids. Cycling has doping issues. Boxing and MMA have their own problems regarding ‘roids. If all NFLers are clean, I’ll punch my Mom.
What has this world come to? Why, all of the sudden, do we feel the need to cheat, to win? What happened to the days when you had to train harder than your opponent? There was a shirt when I was growing up, that said something to the effect of, “somewhere, someone is training when you’re not. When you play them, they will win.” Now, all it takes is a nice, shiny, new outfit and you can go and take down the greatest athlete your sport has ever seen.
On one side of the tag to the Arena X-Glide swimsuit, are the washing instructions, what it’s made of and where it‘s made, but on the other side of that tag, there is one other set of instructions. They say: 1. Put me on. 2. Zip me up. 3. Jump in the water. 4. Raise your arms, you win.
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