Sunday, October 11, 2009

The USMS sends me an ominous letter foreshadowing the end of tech-suits!

Essentially it says: Please come to our meets and wear tech-suits. Please buy tech-suits from our sponsors; but just so you know, in less than 11-weeks from now you probably won't be able to wear tech-suits at USMS sanctioned events...

From the USMS:
Dear Tony ,

The FINA Masters Committee has recommended that the FINA Bureau, meeting in mid-January, approve its recommendation that Masters swimmers be governed by the same swimsuit rules as the elite pool swimmers. If the Bureau approves the committee's recommendation, it is anticipated it would go into effect after the Bureau meeting. If this recommendation becomes policy with the FINA Bureau, USMS will implement it for our sanctioned swim meets.

For the time being and until the FINA Bureau issues its policy for Masters, the June 1, 2009 ruling that allowed technical suits in USMS swim meets is still in effect. If you choose to compete in a USA Swimming sanctioned meet, you must follow USA Swimming rules. If you would like more information on purchasing technical suits, you may contact your swimsuit dealer or any of the following:

bluesevety, TYR, Speedo, Finis

After reading this letter two more times through, I decided to go for a bike ride at my local bike path.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I received that letter as well and found it odd and ominous. What was the goal of this letter?

Tony Austin said...

I can only give my uneducated and meandering opinion: The USMS is worried about attendance for the SCM season; (maybe it's happening all ready?)

They are worried that next January will see a drop in membership.

And since you are the only person who is probably going to read this comment section for this thread - b70 was pissed off that FINA Masters voted this way and they are not going to send them another $10,000 for being a sponsor.

I think the USMS is worried! If I can't race in my tech suit and at the very least get a DQ but a time, why should I come out and play?

Anonymous said...

If people are truly considering quitting over the suit rules, good riddance. I like swimming. I like training, I like racing. The suits are secondary to all of that.

Tony Austin said...

Well, I love swimming too, I love training and I like racing but I won't be competing at the Masters level without a tech suit.

Trev said...

No tech suit, no Tony? Really?

Tony Austin said...

If a meet director won't let me step up to the blocks in a tech suit to get a time before getting DQed, I will not race in 2010

Anonymous said...

Hey Tony:

I know you have posted about this before, but if there was ever an opportunity to organize a competing governing body for this sport, really for all levels, the timing couldn't be more perfect.

Swimming for ME said...

Yeah this one baffled me too....