Swimsuits wreck a noble sport

Across town from the ancient arena, which hosted chariot races, an aquatic version has emerged in the past week, created by the International Swimming Federation when it failed to come to grips with the threat of swimsuit technology before the world championships began last Sunday.
Since FINA opened the door to the use of performance-enhancing polyurethane swimsuits, the record books have been under siege.

The monuments to some of the great champions of the sport - Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, Grant Hackett, Leisel Jones, Inge de Bruijn - have not just been toppled in the last week, they have been smashed to smithereens.
Only two world records that pre-date the release of the first suit with polyurethane panels (the Speedo LZR) in February last year remain - Hackett's revered 1500m freestyle standard and American Kate Ziegler's female equivalent.

By tomorrow Ziegler's mark is expected to be the sole survivor.
The procession began within days of the launch of the LZR. Since then more than 160 world records have fallen, and the mad pace of progress has further accelerated this year, fuelled by the proliferation of full polyurethane suits.
A record 25 world records were broken at the Beijing Olympics, yet at these world championships 35 fell in six days. There could be more world records than events (40) by the time the final tally is taken tonight.
Yet by late last year, it had become obvious something vital to the sport was under threat from this technology. Swimming has always been one of the few pure sports, requiring no equipment to compete.
The suit supporters who have compared the rise of swimsuit technology to advances in Formula One or tennis misunderstand the nature of the sport. Formula One and tennis don't exist without their equipment.

There has been a fundamental shift in swimming's character. As Michael Phelps said in Rome: "Now, it's not swimming".
And so a one-off freak show is being held at the Foro Italico, one that will never be repeated now FINA has finally agreed to ban the polyurethane bodysuits from January 1.
In the meantime, world records are not greeted with wonder by swimmers and coaches as they were in the past. They are being devalued faster than a stockmarket plunge.

Now they are barely acknowledged, and accompanied by sadness when one of greats is taken down by a bolt of fantastic plastic.

There is great awareness that the sport has been unhinged from its foundations.
"We have lost the history of the sport," Phelps's coach, Bob Bowman, lamented after watching unfancied German Paul Biedermann take down Ian Thorpe's 400m freestyle world record and Phelps's 200m mark in three days.
"I just said to Doug Frost (Thorpe's first coach), the two of us were erased in three days," Bowman said.
"It took no time, what took us 12 years together (to build)."
American distance great Janet Evans, whose 1988 world 800m freestyle record went down at Beijing, said: "It's kind of hard to watch. I go online in the morning and I laugh. It's so out of control. We need to kind of start over again."
There was considerable relief around the pool deck yesterday when FINA finally declared a date for the new start.
Perhaps surprisingly, Biedermann, one of those who has gained the most from polyurethane suits, is just as keen to see the back of them.