French Federation Seeks Suit List Delay

French Federation Seeks Suit List Delay
Craig Lord
Jun 10, 2009

The French Swimming Federation has called on FINA to delay any release of a new suits list until June 22 so that the Paris Open can take place under sensible conditions understood by officials, coaches and swimmers alike. Those conditions would follow the current FINA suit list, in common with the three stages of the Mare Nostrum Tour this week.
In a statement, the federation notes that it would be impossible to "police" the Paris Open if FINA publishes a list of modified versions of suits rejected on May 19 but potentially eligible to make the 2009 approved-for-use list after alterations to take into account the objections of FINA on the advice of Prof Jan-Anders Manson and his team of independent suit testers.
What the French federation is calling for is the kind of certainty that has been lacking in the sport of swimming for some while now after the international federation allowed the LZR into the water last year and precipitated the arrival of an equipment-based sport. FINA is now working on a return to textile suits in 2010 but the waters remain muddy this summer in what the international federation describes as a transition phase that is fair to suit makers.
There are many who believe that FINA's priority should have been fairness to swimmers. But a withdrawal from the world of fast suits as fast as the entry into that domain was never going to be easy, with production lines rolling and stock to clear.
What the FFN is calling for should be easy to deliver: June 19 was the deadline by which suit makers had to get modified suits to FINA, therefore any amended suits list would, presumably, take at least a couple of days to compile and to make public.
The French federation is making serious attempts to understand precisely what FINA wants from January 1, 2010. In response to FINA's letter to federations, which invites them to "vote" "Yes" or "No" to FINA's swimwear rule (don't recall federations voting for the approval of the LZR - that was down to just three men) proposals from Jan 1, 2010, French fed president and FINA Bureau member Francis Luyce asks 12 questions, among them:
Thickness - 0.8mm, is that applicable to stretched textile or not?
Pemeability - how were the 167 points of 'control' arrived at? Were they arrived at by testing suits in use (swimmer in motion) or static (just on the suit alone)?
Textile-Only - what do we understand by textile? The definition of textile is: woven fabric. Under that definition, which fabrics will be authorised? [ED: this is a very critical question, for reasons that will soon become apparent].
Caps - it would seem that we ought also to look into issues of thickness and buoyancy.