Craig Lord at Swim News states that it only cost $1,500 US to submit a suit to 'FINA' for approval!

Craig Lord of Swim News goes "Postal" on FINA which suggest to me that Mr. Lord believes that speedsuits will NOT be outlawed next month or the month thereafter.

Mr. Lord has aggressively sided with several National Governing Bodies who would like to see "old school" suits or suits that resemble those from the 1970's mandated as the de facto attire.

"Progressives," like the USMS, who has recently entered into a sponsorship deal blueseventy would like to see swimming move forward.

Anyway, The most amusing snippet I found in the article was that FINA only charges $1,500 for their suit approval process.

"... Mr Marculescu, [FINA Executive Director] who is keen to have decisions on suits based on science, told SwimNews that the guidelines "are still in place and will be updated during this year of 2009". Hope lives in the word "updated". Meantime, 30 new suit approvals equals 30 x US $1,500 for FINA. Not a fortune but the cost of that money could be much higher."

"..."

"... So, If FINA is not wedded to the idea of a moratorium, the very least it should do in the face of the risk presented above is to send every single one of the latest suits sent for approval straight to an independent laboratory with a note stating: given patents that exist in this world, is there any way that this garment could be used as a platform for technology that could interact with the central nervous system of the human body? There are other questions too – about angle buoyancy, about flotation tools, about fabrics that are not fabrics at all. About where to draw a line that will allow suit makers to innovate without creating suits that cross the line from maximising to enhancing performance. ..."

[Link]