USA Swimming Is Reviewing The Price Impact of Technical Swim Suits On Age Group Competitions

The lost revenue the manufactures will have will hurt the sport. Not only are there very few swimmers making a living off the sport, the ones that make a good living is absurdly small. Taking money out of the pot for sponsorships can’t be good for the sport. Not to mention look at the sponsors on the pages of USA swimming. I don’t think you would ever see the NFL hurt the pockets of its sponsors. Look at the cost of children’s sports. Swimming is a drop in the bucket compared to most.

Tell me about these sports that have no expensive goodies to buy….

Anne Wozniak Freedman this article has a pic of our swimmers at the Cera Ve meet

Kim Cook

Are they going to review how many private swim lessons a swimmer has during the swim season? That’s the real expense that gives an age group swimmer an edge over other swimmers not the suit. Some swimmers can’t afford private swim lessons. This whole topic is a slippery slope and I hope they allow swimmers to wear technical suits for championships meets. The swimmers like wearing them just like they like private swim lesson. Also, my daughter feels more comfortable swimming in a tech suite during the big meets because it covers more skin while some swimmers feel more comfortable in a traditional swim suit.

I’m from the paper suit era. We thought those were expensive back in the 1990s. Kids don’t need to be wearing tech suits unless maybe they are contending for a national record or the like. And it certainly shouldn’t be a requirement to be in these suits. For the average swimmer it’s not going to make a lick of difference. Parents will buy them because they think it might make a difference. It’s just like the kid on the baseball team with the spanking new $500 Easton Mako bat. And there’s always a kid from a family of 8 kids with his older brothers hand-me-down beat up bat that can out hit every kid in the league.

Alyssa Vallejo McKenna O’Brien

I am mixed on the issue of tech suits. My 12 year old really wanted one. She had a goal of qualifying for JOs. We told her we would buy her a tech suit if she qualified so She could use it at the meet. She made it, so we bought her a suit on sale through Speedo for $39. She is so thin it made no difference in her time, but she was excited to have one and it cost less than her practice suit. While I do think parents should have a say in this, I think the new Maine LSC rule stating no tech suits for 10 and unders and 11-12 can only use them for championship meets is a reasonable compromise.

If the swimmer wants to wear it and the parents can afford it, who is USA Swimming to tell them they can’t wear it? Is this another “everyone gets their fair share scenario”? This is political bull s**t.

Fairer playing field

Bb8Nik

Our 10-year-old daughter just swam 1:09:77 in a relay in an old school suit – she does have a tech suit which she received as a gift from the family. It is her best at this stage and it goes to show that the suit does not make the swimmer. She is asthmatic and we prefer the old school suits as she can dress dry between events – i.e. as per pediatrician instructions, we keep her chest dry while she waits for the next event especially in winter. Keeping her dry is making a difference to her chest. So even though she does have a tech suit, we will not replace it but rather move back to old school suits.

Tech suits are helpful for teen girls & adult women for obvious reasons. I see no point in them for younger kids, and I have a hard time seeing boys gain great advantage from them.. At the last age group champs I attended, the young girls’ suits appeared to not even fit properly. USA Swimming is an expensive league. Age group zones is a travel meet so that costs at least $500 for travel, room, and board alone. Locally, universities hold meets which are attended by kids from states hundreds of miles away. There are warm ups, t shirts, and gear to buy for teams and Zones. Kids go to camps far from home, some of which are advertised in USA Swim’s magazine and cost hundreds of dollars. USA clubs are more than twice the cost of the other swim clubs around here, even ones that swim all year. Every meet costs entry fees, many include a “per swimmer fee” for what purpose I cannot tell. There are a lot of costs to USA swimming. Banning tech suits for under 12 is a good idea because there appears little necessity of the suit for that age group and adds unnecessary cost to an otherwise expensive sport. However, USA Swim might consider ways to lower their own costs rather than only Speedo and Arena profit.

Kevin Tesseneer. Ummmm?. I bet parents of other sports will agree their kids sport is expensive too.

Good

I can see it now…. 14 year old kid wearing $600 worth of gear still gets DQed for a back-to-breast turn. All the money in the world is not going to replace hard work and good coaching.

Danielle Karbonik Cirincione, Lauren Elizabeth, is this our Caitlin?!?! It’s definitely NBAC, they just removed the logo from the caps.