FINA: We Have Two Tribes!

Guest editorial by Tony Austin

LOS ANGELES, California, October 15. IT was the last weekend in September when the FINA Masters committee met in Gothenburg, Sweden to determine whether techsuits would be acceptable swimwear for Masters swimming competitions worldwide.

The two-day meeting held great significance for the rank and file of U.S. Masters Swimming, and for several techsuit manufacturers at large who recently took a critical hit when FINA banned high-performance suits in all international competitions.

Masters swimming was the last market opportunity for any high-end suit manufacturer to unload their inventory or break even for 2009. Most believed that FINA would grant manufacturers some sort of relief or niche market opportunity since several of these manufacturers had sponsored FINA sanctioned events.

The logic was simple: Masters swimmers in general could afford $350 tech-suits and manufacturer participation in Masters swimming was proving to be a viable market for them. Not only was the USMS picking up ad-revenue from these manufacturers, the sponsorship of Rowdy Gaines donning a Blueseventy at Masters SCY Nationals electrified Masters swimmers of his generation, thereby swelling the ranks of the USMS even further.

Then on Sept. 26, Amy Shipley of the Washington Post broke news via source Nancy Ridout declaring that the FINA Masters committee was going to recommend that the same swimsuit rules the FINA Bureau had adopted for international meets should be applied to Masters Swimming worldwide. However, there was a caveat: this decision was only a recommendation and not a ruling. A final ruling would have to be rendered by the FINA Bureau themselves some three months later.

Essentially, the FINA Masters committee "punted."

Within an hour, blogs, message boards, and Facebook pages were on fire with the news; or the lack thereof, summarily stating that nothing had been decided and nothing had been accomplished save for the notion that FINA was being reckless towards the Masters swimming population at large.

The mission statement for the USMS includes the following paragraph:
"…United States Masters Swimming (USMS) is a national organization that provides organized workouts, competitions, clinics and workshops for adults aged 18 and over. Programs are open to all adult swimmers; (fitness, triathlete, competitive, non-competitive), who are dedicated to improving their fitness through swimming…."

No matter how you deconstruct it, the message is clear; Masters swimming has two tribes, those who swim recreationally and those that compete for personal glory.

The USMS has more than 50,000 swimmers belonging to the organization, but only a small percentage of the members compete at the elite level. Statistically, roughly 10 percent will have a chance at being a top-10 swimmer in their age group. The actual number is probably closer to 5 percent-or-less since champions within the USMS such as Erik Hochstein, Rowdy Gaines, Jenny Cook and Ahelee Sue Olsen, generally dominate more than one event.

These swimmers are the elites or the giants among the organization. Consequently, one could argue that the same professional standards an international competition affords should be applicable to that caliber of swimmer. With that in mind what about the recreational swimmer?

Contrast the elite group with any large scale Masters swim workout around the country, and you see that the swimmers who are having the most fun are generally the swimmers in the first three lanes, or the slower lanes with the softest intervals. There you will find the swimmers wearing the open-water goggles because they take longer to fog up, fins that are a foot long so they can go swim faster, and if they are really ambitious, they may have hand-paddles that are the size of a pizza.

These are recreational swimmers who swim for pleasure and if they compete, they are only out there to support their club. Techsuits are a vehicle for those Masters to be modest and swim faster but by swimming faster does not mean they will suddenly be swimming with the Rowdy Gaines or Jenny Cook crowd.

Contrasting these two tribes, one has to ask why should FINA insist on such strict swimwear rules for Masters swimming when 90 percent of the participants have no chance of being a top 10 swimmer or who may never win a blue-ribbon nor wear a tin-medal around their necks?

The techsuit debate has been an extraordinarily divisive issue for swimming. To compare that debate to the "red-state/blue-state" phenomena would not be hyperbole or an exaggeration. Rather than force a majority of Masters swimmers to adopt the same strict rule sets of international meets, clearer heads should prevail

A better policy FINA could undertake would be called: Compromise!

Hold the elites to the same competition rules that the Olympic and international meets follow but allow the majority of Masters swimmers to swim in events that cater to their needs and wants. A profound majority of Masters swimmers competes very little. When they do, they are there to socialize support their club. Let local Masters swimming meet directors be more flexible with who and what events are conducted but force the elites to follow the letter of the FINA law.

USMS officials who will officiate a meet should make the rules clear, but allow any swimmer who paid his or her fees to step up to the blocks wearing a techsuit, which that demographic can easily afford, allow them to complete their swim, allow them to see their time on the board and then finally DQ them but post their time on the result page as a souvenir from the event.

Masters swimming is intended to be both a sport and a recreational activity. The majority of Masters swimmers are not there for record-book acknowledgment. Therefore, any FINA restrictions should take into account their particular goals and purposes for swimming.

Erik Hochstein

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