Hi-tech swimsuits have no place in the pool

SWIMMING used to be easy but the days of just turning up with trunks, a swim hat and a pair of goggles are long gone.

There is nothing wrong with looking for a competitive advantage.

You can understand the concept of 'shaving down' - although the legendary Mark Spitz and Britain's own David Wilkie did pretty well with bushy ‘taches that must have added some drag to their times.

APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE: In the last year both Rebecca Adlington and British team-mate Jo Jackson have broken world records in controversial swimsuits. Fina have now banned ten designs and order changes to over 100 more (Getty Images)

However, swimsuits are now designed by boffins at NASA - who it could be argued should concentrate on loftier goals, like a manned mission to Mars.

More than 100 world records have been broken in the last 18 months as new suits were developed, seemingly with hidden propellers and invisible outboard motors.

World governing body Fina - conscious their flagship World Championships in Rome this summer would be dominated by an increasing reliance on the appliance of science - moved earlier this year to hold an investigation.

First they banned the practice of wearing multiple layers - which traps air and makes competitors more buoyant.

They also ruled suits should not cover the neck or extend past the shoulders and ankles and issued instructions limiting the thickness and regulations regarding buoyancy.

And finally they announced a review 348 suits from 21 manufacturers, including Speedo's LZR Racer.

Swimmers wearing that suit - including Michael Phelps and Rebecca Adlington - won 94 per-cent of the golds in Beijing and were responsible for breaking 23 of the 25 world records set at the Water Cube.

Indeed, last year alone Speedo could ‘claim credit' for 79 of the 108 world records that were lowered.

The results of Fina's investigation are now in - and they rejected ten of the designs and sent more than 100 back to manufacturers calling for urgent modifications.

UNDER THREAT: Alain Bernard's 100m freestyle record - set earlier this year - is now in doubt following Fina's announcement about changes to swim suit rules (Getty Images)

Among the ten ruled illegal were the X-Glide and Jaked 01 - worn France's Alain Bernard and Freddie Bosquet when they set world records at their national championships last month.

Athletics lost many of its supporters when you needed a degree in chemistry or a keen interest pharmacology for an inside track on the real story behind the results.

You watched the blue-riband 100m world record being lowered - by shamed sprinters Ben Johnson, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin - and wondered what they were on.

It's unfair for swimmers that the public are now increasingly doing the same with them - but wondering what they are in.

There is a world of difference between performance enhancing drugs and performance enhancing swimsuits but words like polyurethane - the substance sprayed on suits to make them buoyant - belong in a builder's manual not a sports report.

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