Washington Post: For Amateur Swimmers, the Cost Of Success Doesn't Suit Everyone!

Dan sent us this and I suspect it was something we all knew inside but never said out loud.

Amy Shipley of the Washington Post breaks down the economic hardships of speedsuit costs for families, high schools and colleges: "...The suits even are appearing at the youth and high school levels, coaches and parents say. Many of the top competitors at the recent state high school championships in Arizona wore Speedo's LZR Racer, the model worn by Phelps during the Olympics. Jon Rogers, the aquatics director for Georgetown Prep and owner of the Aqua Hoya Swim Club, speculated that about half of the region's high school swimmers would show up to end-of-season championships in January and February wearing some version of the LZR, which retails for as much as $550.

"Financially, some families can't afford it," Rogers said. "It's going to become a big issue. ..." [Link]

FINA is approving suits while the NCAA and USA Swimming have major economic class considerations. I am sure national governing bodies in Europe, Australia, the Americas and Asia have similar complaints too. It seems like FINA is so far removed from these national governing bodies at large that it appears that they simply do not talk to each other whatsoever regarding the problems they face regionally.

And speaking of nuclear fission, Michael Phelps owes the dolphin kick to nuclear physicist, Volney C. Wilson!

Amy Shipley from the Washington Post explores the history of the dolphin kick which ultimately transformed the freestyle into a hybrid event. Here is a snippet:

"... The underwater dolphin kick attracted the interest of swimming innovators as early as the 1930s. The late Volney C. Wilson explored its possibilities before diving into later work on nuclear fission and the atomic bomb, according to David Schrader, a research professor at Marquette University who is Wilson's biographer.

Schrader said Wilson, an alternate on the 1932 Olympic water polo team who studied fish propulsion at a Chicago aquarium, claimed to have shown the kick to Johnny Weissmuller, a training mate at the Illinois Athletic Club. ..."

I think Weissmuller would have been way more receptive to it if the flip-turn was part of a swimmer's lexicon.

There are so many gems in this article regarding swimmers Misty Hyman; Neil Walker; local boy, Lenny Krayzelburg; Michael Phelps; and they even bring in propeller heads from the Navy into George Washinton University to study its effectiveness. It is a total must read: [Link]

Thanks for sending this ;-)

"Speedo" and the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs did a lot of "over-promising" this week

"Under-promise but over-deliver," that is what Creative Director, Susi Watson, taught me when I worked for the Disney Internet Group.

This week a lot of promises were made in regards to swimming: We had Speedo's claim yesterday that their new speed suit is 10% more fluid dynamic than the original Fastskin and as a result provides the swimmer with 4% more oxygen stores.

Now, quoted in the Washington Post, trainers at the USOC are insinuating that they have a way of cataloging or quantifying successful tweaks in one's training. They are vague and "snarky" about what it is but this is how it is described:

"... They undertook a joint study at the training center last fall. They devised what Vint described as a "measurement thing," and Olympic megastar Michael Phelps assisted with the testing. The new "thing" helped Phelps and other swimmers, according to Vint, who hopes it will make a difference for the United States in Beijing. Prior to the USOC's change in structure, Vint said, such a partnership would never have emerged. ..."

They say they won't reveal it till September: [Link]

The proof will be in the water and as a matter of fact, Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, and other Speedo mercenaries will be swimming at the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Swimming this weekend at the University of Missouri.

We are only six months out from the Olympic games and these athletes have been promised by Speedo to have 4% added oxygen stores by wearing suits that are 5% more fluid dynamic than the suits they wore at the 2007 FINA World Championships. If that is the case, they all should be swimming remarkably faster than they did last year when they step onto the blocks.

As for the USOC who asserted in the Washington Post article that Michael Phelps and other USA swimmers were helped by this. "measurement thing," again, same thing, we should definitely expect faster swimming, but on the other hand, what if we don't?

The photo above is posted with permission from Business Wire and it is captioned: Michael Phelps (USA) models the new Speedo LZR RACER, the world's fastest swimsuit. The new suit will be worn by athletes in Beijing. (Photo: Business Wire)