Performance Enhancing Suits Debasing Swimming
by Tim Furious
Olympic Sports have had a knack for being decimated by scandal. We all know that people cheat to win in the most disgraceful ways, trying to sneak steroids in to their training regimen, or blood doping, or clubbing their opponents knees with a hired thug (nope, Tanya Harding jokes never get old!) but to think that a governing body would stand by as some guy was using another performance enhancer is beyond me.
This time, the fight is over equipment. When 22 year-old German, Paul Biedermann, shattered Phelps’ record in the 200m freestyle at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships by four seconds, everyone pointed to the suit. Phelps is outraged, and not just because his record was shattered. The governing body that oversees the wet and wild world of swimming has deemed the suits to be “illegal” but won’t make any official decision until next Spring…yes NEXT Spring. The one in 2010.
In the meantime, Phelps has chosen to boycott swimming until the world of swimming gets the water out of its ears and comes to a swifter decision concerning the suits.
It’s not that Biedermann isn’t a world-class swimmer. But if Barry Bonds can get an asterix next to his name, then Biedermann, who just claimed gold medals in the 200m and 400m freestyle, while setting world records in the process, should get one too. The controversy stems over the Arena X-Glide, a swimming suit that, like Homer Simpson’s speed holes, make the swimmer much, much faster.
Do you understand how much four-seconds is off of a 200m World Record in the pool? It’s a lifetime. To think that a suit can help a 22 year-old athlete shatter a record set by the greatest swimmer of all time is unbelievable to me. Phelps, in contrast, swims in regular tights that don’t go above his waist. The X-Glide’s polyurethane material allows the swimmer to propel themselves through the water by improving buoyancy and reducing friction, and even Biedermann is calling for the suits to be banned. If he feels that way, then why the hell is he wearing one?
Let’s consider the cross-sports analogies for a second. In the NFL receivers use receiver gloves, which is like using stick ‘em. There’s no doubt that the gloves improve your ability to catch the ball. In cycling, the bikes are simply better than they used to be. Hockey skates are getting faster and streamlined. In short, equipment is getting better, so if everyone can use them, then why should there be a problem? Why couldn’t Phelps have just worn one of the damn suits?
In baseball betting they outlaw corked bats. They’re still bats, but they’re far better for hitting dingers, and if you don’t believe me then just ask Sammy Sosa. Sidney Crosby got in trouble for using an over-curved hockey stick (you can only curve the stick so much) because it causes wrists shots to fire off the blade much faster.
So are these suits like receiver gloves, or like corked bats?
The problem for the sport of swimming is that if Phelps really does stand up to the ban, then that is extremely bad for the sport overall. He’s the star of the sport, the one with the most name power. Swimming is not a mainstream sports, and Phelps made it intriguing and entertaining. Unlike the PGA, which has a steadfast crowd that watches even if Tiger Woods doesn’t address the tee-box, swimming needs its star at every major meet.
Banning the X-Glide suit, to me, is an immediate move that the sport must make. Sitting complacently on making a decision until 2010 is just ignorant for a sport that needs as much as it can get. We’re in an age that is so against the idea of performance enhancers of any kind that it baffles me that the sport would idly by. If Phelps isn’t there, nobody cares, and when nobody cares that’s bad news for the sport. The committee may have its rules regarding things like the X-Glide, but what really suits the sport’s decision makers, is to get their big fish back in the pool.
