Saturday, December 19, 2009

It's official: 'Duel in the Pool' is a 'USA Swimming' farce for no American records will be accepted despite FINA approved tech suits!

I kid you not; USA Swimming co-organizes a meet yet they won't accept any American records set in tech suits despite that their boss, FINA, has granted them approval.

Snippet from Swimming World. I cannot print the "heart of the article" since the story is only a few paragraphs and I don't want to violate fair use rules but this snippet sums it up:

"... The sport could potentially see some lawsuits from this ruling as swimmers who were competing legally in an event at the time could be denied bonus money with USA Swimming not ratifying a national record. ..."

[Link]

Well, if USA Swimming can do what they want, then so should the USMS. Let's have tech-suits for Short Course Yards Season since FINA does not recognize yards!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's completely stupid. Totally stupid - those records should stand. I hope the swimmers legally challenge that.

But - you said that "much of American talent" sat this meet out - how is that true? From what I saw, the US sent a strong team for what it was.

Tony Austin said...

I really should measure my words. Matt Greevers was awesome, Soni was awesome, Phelps was Phelps. Lochte wasn't there etc.

Anonymous said...

Well, Lochte and Coughlin were the ones missing and Coughlin seems to be taking time out since she didn't go to the World Champs in Rome last year and is doing other projects (wouldn't expect her to go to this).

Anonymous said...

The 2009-2010 SCY season is halfway done. No self-respecting organization can change the rules mid-season. This problem and the ARs set at the Duel are just a hint of what's coming. The ban is creating problems, not solving them.

Tony Austin said...

I got a phone call on December 23rd suggesting that FINA wants to change the rules again regarding Jammers. They want to tweak the stitching rules mandating that the seams can only be 5mm wide or 1/5th of an inch. Of course one company already knew about the rule change before going into production.