Libby Trickett did not wear the LZR despite promises to do so - She wore an X-Glide, From Swimming World:
The women's 400 free relay started with a preview to the women's 100 free final where Libby Trickett faced off against Britta Steffen. Trickett wore a high-tech suit (despite being vocal about her wanting to swim in a LZR) to not disappoint the team. 52.22 was the time clocked by Steffen, which was a lead off, new world record, and also now the fastest split in history (again, this is a lead off). Coupled with a 52.37 surprising split by Daniela Schrieber, Germany took silver ahead of the Australians and the Americans.From the Sydney Morning Herald:
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Trickett said her coach Grant Stoelwinder convinced her not to let teammates down and wear a new generation suit, but insists she will be loyal when it comes to her individual races even if it costs her a medal.
"I am very much a loyal Speedo supporter and I am still a contracted Speedo athlete," said Trickett.
"Sometimes you have to do things you may not necessarily want to, to try and do the best job for the team that you possibly can and I was greatly encouraged to do that.
... "It was a very, very difficult decision, and I hope Speedo understands because I'm just trying to do my bit in supporting the team as best I can. ..."
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And supporting the team meant not wearing an ineffectual swimsuit!
Libby, I think you did it for yourself and not the "team." I am impressed by your coach for 'falling on his sword" and taking the blame for your decision but let's see what you wear in the individual events.
Ultimately, you wore the best suit and the LZR was not it for it ranked well below the Hydrofoil, X-Glide, Jaked 01, blueseventy, The TYR A7 and many others.
I am going to have a measured response soon regarding the new FINA rule that Speedo surrogates "gamed" into our sport and I promise my response will have nothing to do with torches and pitch forks!
The photo above comes from an the Courier Mail and the author actually writes this with a straight face:
"... IT was Libby Trickett's loyalty to her country that broke her commitment to her long-term sponsor Speedo on the opening night of the world championships in Rome. ..."Nicole Jeffrey use to be my favorite swim coverage writer; however, that has changed. Both her articles and Craig Lord's hourly rants regarding the "suit crisis" were simply the fine art of manufacturing consent so as to ban them. Subsequently, they literally "stunk up the place."
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So, they both get the SCAQ Blog Death Penalty: I will never link to Nicole Jeffrey nor reference Craig Lord ever again till they apologize for their editorials disguised as journalism so as to promote their "Amish values" in regards to swimsuit technology.
Link regarding the Amish points of views regarding technology and family here at About.com: [Link]
13 comments:
I actually respect Ms. Trickett for her decision. She's in a very difficult spot. There really isn't any possible argument about the LZR being slower than the Jaked or other new generation suits. Last year in the run-in to the Olympics, the fastest times in the world were 53. something. Trickett broke 53 in the USA Australia dual meet swimming in Phelp's draft. Steffen now goes a 52.2 in a post-olympic year? That is a giant drop and a significant portion of the drop has to be the suit.
Trickett does have a duty to her fellow relay mates to swim her best time so that they and her country can do their best. If I were on her team I'd want her to do her best to help our team excel--and accepting a handicap in the form of a LZR suit would tick me off.
I will be interested to see if she wears a LZR in her individual events or not. She makes a living on her reputation as a swimmer--which extends to a lot more than her Speedo contract for an Australian swimmer. I'd expect her to want to fight back to compete on a level playing field. This is her last window of opportunity to get the record back before the rules change and the rate of record change slows to zero for the next decade. So she has pride, jealousy, team-loyalty, financial motivation to be the fastest woman swimmer(which is worth more than not being the fastest but having the affection of Speedo) and her innate competitiveness all pushing her to wear the speed suit.
Your last paragraph rally resonated the most with me. "...her last chance." Hence, the suit change.
Yes, I agree Tony... get those records NOW before they change the rules. Some of these being set this weekend may be around for a LONG, LONG TIME. We're talking Mary T., and Janet Evans like. While I'm not trying to make any pessimistic predictions... but are we all ready to not see another World Record for the next 10 years? Just think how much press we'll be getting THEN!
Media covers World Records and medal counts. So, I fear the attention is going to all shift to Michael's continuing medal gathering. That's a lot of pressure even for a great swimmer.
These records will last 30 years...
It's George Jetson versus Fred Flintstone: I predict suits will be deemed illegal and then reinstated once FINA sees that swimming growth has grind to a halt...
30 years is a long time. But the drops are staggering. In the women's 200 IM, 2:10 was fast 18 months ago and now the record is 2:06 low. That's amazing.
Hey Tony:
I also remember when all the flyers hurried up to try to break the world record before the rule changed to only 15 meters underwater, because after that, the records wouldn't be broken for a long time.
Under the old rule, Misty Hyman never broke 2:09 going 30 to 35 meters underwater. The rule changed, and she went 2:05.88 in Sydney.
I think it will be 30 years. I don't see how swimmers can improve 5% or so in under a decade or two.
When Laure Manaudou broke Janet Evans record she was wearing a suit.
anonymous, I do stand corrected and I even went back and soften my stance with a light edit.
Libby Lenton was pro suit, then switch to anti-suit because her sponsor gamed the system to have them outlawed.
Libby Lnton is now saying she is doing it for her country rather than herself and I find that unlikely.
Speedo is fighting to delay the ban on bodysuits.
"A suit maker is coercing federations and swimmers to write to FINA to say that this must all be postponed. The implication is that if they don't, then support will be withdrawn,"
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25845913-14641,00.html
Appalling.
A year ago, could you have imagined such unanimous agreement that the LZR is INFERIOR? Speedo athletes (many/most of whom are the best in the world) are screwed this year. Wear the LZR in honor of the company maintaining your livelihood, and lose. Wear a competitor's suit, and now you're a traitor. There's no winning that battle. And we should all be worried about that - on a fundamental level, professional swimming cannot be maintained if swimmers are motivated to betray their sponsors.
It drives me nuts that people keep saying these new suits are improved technology. Please. Polyurethane has been around for years, we just thought it laughable to compete in flotation devices until now. This isn't some sort of remarkable achievement in swim technology. This is game theory gone bad.
Personally, I find it's making the sport far less exciting. World records are a dime a dozen this week. I'd like to be super excited for Ariana Kukors, but instead I find myself wondering if she'd be 3-4 seconds slower in a LZR. I'm glad to see a return to old(er) school suits, so that I can return to appreciating the athletes and race strategy. If I want to get pumped about fabric, I'll go to the garment district.
I promised I wouldn't say this but when the vote to ban the suits took place Coach Mark Schubert was in the room even though he was not on the FINA coaches committee and entitled to a vote.
John Leonard, who is, stated that he cast his vote by phone, he said that on a Flo video but the trth is he never voted at all.
Hence my belief Speedo, who pays Mark Schubert and endorsement fee, is behind the banning of suits.
Amanda,
TYR wants speedsuits, why did they quote Swim News?
Lord is such a lousy journalist. He won't even provide a name for the quote. I am calling TYR PR and their lawyer to see if that is true.
Kerry,
Suits do float for a little bit but it is the compression that makes you faster.
"It is Confucian, with all of cleverness and virtues, who nourish robbers and thieves" quote from Laozi's Tao Te Ching
What's the next step? Genetic modified human that render drug tests useless utterly. Being fair, Libby Trickett should switch to Addidas Hydrofoil to level up the game equally, especially the incentive to win is so great and so much is at stake. For example, Zhang Lin wouldn't lose to Biedermann in 400m free if he wore one of those full polyurethane suit instead LZR, but nobody in the West seems to care.But, when Phelps lost, as if it is the most act of injustice on earth.
http://www.skynews.com.au/sport/article.aspx?id=357533
The major problem lies in the hypocrisy of the West. They've two sets of standards; one for them, the others for those whom dare to challenge their supremacy to follow(not just sports). Fina is just like the World Bank, an exclusively American and European Club.
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