FINA guidelines have been release and per the guidelines I selected to comment upon, female swimmers will essentially sacrifice less speed-wise than the men and suffer no loss in modesty. The boys however will wear briefs and jammers.Picture if you will the female version of the TYR Sayonara Shortjohn Swimskin above with no zipper and a textile fabric and there you have it: A de facto shortjohn speedsuit for woman.
Surface covered: Men swimsuit shall not extend above the navel nor below the knee and for women shall not cover the neck or extend past the shoulders nor shall extend below the knee.
Variety of materials: Different materials may be used in one swimsuit provided they are textile fabrics as defined above and they comply with all other criteria including notably thickness and permeability (measures to apply to total layers). Combination of materials shall further not create outstanding shape(s) or structure(s). Layered materials must be completely attached/bound/stuck together except where required to protect sensitive parts ("privacy layers").
[...]
Construction: No zippers or other fastening system is allowed. Seams shall be limited to functional systems and shall not create outside shapes.
[Link]
For womens' suits I foresee swimsuit companies choosing a fabric for the core area that is more constrictive than the breast& shoulder area and then choosing another fabric all together for the back area to aid in buoyancy and compression.
Then picture a small entry opening which the female slides into thus giving them an ad hoc shortjohn without a zipper. Voilà - Woman get to wear a speedsuit!
Boys, on the other hand will lose more speed than the woman and there will be no modesty avenues to explore whatsoever. It's briefs and Jammers; just the way Schubert, Bowman and Speedo probably wanted it.
7 comments:
so under this rule the nie swift is out(with the plastic band)
idk i think this will be a healthy change.....but a drastic one
esentilay suits dont matter any more
For woman, if my understanding is correct regarding the fabric over the shoulder, suits will make a difference for woman.
Men will see a huge degradation in swim times and modesty.
I agree, but as someone of the female persuasion would just like to remind y'all that there is also the small matter of, well, keeping one's breasts from flying all over the pool. Which requires a certain amount of textile restriction, and which is an issue most men - and certainly all olympic-level athletes - don't really need to face. :)
And that is why they won't have people like me designing women's swimsuits. 0_~
interesting article!
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Can-young-swimmers-flourish-in-the-shadow-of-Mic?urn=oly,180254
I am going to do a post on it right now. I think it was the finest article Mel Stewart has ever written
LOL, Amen Hadar. Tell you what Tony, strap on the dead weight of breasts, and then you too can wear a bodysuit. Or are you just campaigning for toplessness in the sport? Now THAT woud get some media attention outside of Phelps. ;-)
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