The last thing I ever wanted was the "red-state / blue-state" phenomena to become part of a recreation that I love. Yesterday's USMS tech-suit vote made it official: we are all now Democrats or Republicans, progressives or conservatives, and we are angry at each other.
To have a governing body grant swimmers the right to wear tech-suits; (which ultimately sprouts a cottage industry to support that right), then within a year deny that right is more than just aggravating, it is disenfranchising.
Members on both sides of the debate are passionate, angry, and are pointing fingers at each other like Democrats and Republicans. Apparently the only common ground is a complete lack of respect for FINA.
I for one am currently evaluating what I will do next year if it is mandated that we compete in briefs or jammers.
From RobAquatics who is at ground zero of this debacle. This is just a snippet, the article is a must read:
Ok, so I just got out of the final meeting of this year's house of delegates. The last action item was, dun dun dun.... swimsuits. It finally happened. Up until this point hardly anyone mentioned it, it was like bringing up religion or politics in casual conversation... not a good idea. Once the floor opened up the comments got pretty hot for a little while. ..."
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The vote was much closer than I would have expected. 101 to 93 in favor of dropping the suits earlier rather than later. Boo. I still think FINA has plenty of flip flop left in it and this was probably a whole lot of fighting for nothing. We'll see how it goes down. From what I understand we still get to ride out the rest of SCM season in tech-suits.
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3 comments:
Gawk! Last thing anyone wants is for swimming to start mimicking American politics (grin). I, for one, am pretty indifferent to the idea of Masters Swimming keeping tech-suits - but whatever turns your crank, and easier swimming has to be considered a plus for us decrepit oldies. If FINA approved the suits for use in 5K and 10K racing why can't we opt for the same too? On the other hand should they count for new masters world records? We're a FINA regulated body after all. Many of the same arguments which sunk the suits for elite and age group swimming apply to us too. Do we simply shrug our shoulders and say "Who really cares?" (FINA's position to all intents and purposes). Would we have tech-suit divisions, or just allow 'nature' take its course and watch tech-suits become de facto standard issue for our elite masters?
It's an ugly dilemma. Thankfully I'm not nearly as invested in this debate as I was when it applied to competition. What will be will be 'cause I'm not buying a tech-suit regardless (damn, I guess that rules out my chances for any master world records). Just one of life's many bitter disappointments.
I am extraordinarily emotionally invested in this. I am all ready shopping for triathlons to do. If I compete at the masters level, the soonest would be 2011.
Unfortunately, Tony, you can't have it both ways: either we're very emotionally invested in something - in which case others are, too, and there's going to be controversy, as is the case with politics - or we don't care much, in which case there won't be controversy.
Since I'm not at all emotionally invested in this one way or the other, I'm just looking forward to the day when we stop talking about suits and start talking about stroke and speed again.
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