Industry News: TYR Threatens Lawsuit Against FINA

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California, June 25. BASED upon the declaration issued by the FINA Executive on June 22, 2009, TYR is content with the inclusion of 37 swimsuits on the official "FINA 2009 Revised List of Approved Swimsuits."

Among these technologies immediately available for use are Tracer Light, Tracer Rise, Tracer A7, Fusion, and Sayonara. We are looking forward to their success at the upcoming World Championships in Rome.

However, TYR has had additional suits rejected by FINA that consisted of similar fabrics and are engineered similarly to those by other manufacturers that received approval. These suits from TYR were submitted specifically to maintain fairness to our athletes on the possibility that those definitive technologies were approved. TYR was not provided any reasoning from FINA, or testing results, as to why our technologies of equal development were not approved while others were passed based upon no modifications (as previously requested from FINA).

Our understanding now is that certain manufacturer's were allowed the ability to "submit arguments" defending their suits. This does not comply with the Dubai Charter which distinctively asserted "FINA has established its own independent control/testing program." Why has the burden now been placed upon the manufacturer to persuade FINA when they have already secured their own protocol?

TYR has continuously followed the guidelines set forth by FINA, as well as, the spirit intended by the "Dubai Charter" established in March. The Charter stated that, "FINA brings together athletes from around the world to compete on equal conditions," but at this time it is simply not the case. TYR, our athletes, our federations, and our coaches are being placed at a disadvantage for our compliance.

In the interests of our athletes and federations, our counsel has formally requested, from FINA, the testing results of those specific manufacturer's suits and the testing results of the similar TYR suits that were not approved.

This revised ruling prevents our athletes from having access to our comparable technologies that TYR has developed and are similar, or the same, to those approved by others. Not only does this create an unlevel playing field, it also presents the possibility of athletes choosing not to compete in international competition until there is clarity. This would be an unfortunate detriment to our sport.

FINA claimed, in the Dubai Charter, that the Bureau would "revise the requirements for swimsuit approval with the aim of making them more clear, simple and transparent." They have failed measurably in this regard.

Again, in the best interest of the sport, and for the basis of clarification on FINA's own guidelines, TYR has requested a response from FINA by Friday, June 26th. If sufficient correspondence has not been met, TYR will pursue appropriate legal remedy at that time.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use