WHEN Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, he wore off-the-shelf swim trunks without a swim cap and a big cheesy moustache.
SOURCE: AP
When Michael Phelps broke Spitz' medal haul record at last year's Beijing Olympics with eight gold (seven world records, one Olympic record), he wore a customised, rubberised, supertight full-body sleeveless Speedo suit, and an equally technologically-advanced swim cap.
SOURCE: BLOOMBURG
Personally, I'm much more impressed with Spitz' feat, given it was more a show of true human potential than Phelps' mix of technology and talent.
And that's why I'm happy that the Federation Internationale de Natation (Fina), the world's governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming and open water swimming, last week laid down new regulations for swimwear at their Bureau Meeting in Dubai.
In a four-page announcement on Fina.org called the 'Dubai Charter', Fina revealed amendments to existing requirements for swimwear approval, valid until Dec 31, 2009.
This is a bid to end the controversy over the new generation of swimsuits that have caused a flurry of falling world records from Phelps and friends in the pool over the past year.
In Beijing, 94 per cent of all swimming races were won in the Speedo LZR Racer, which was launched on Feb 13 last year. Twenty-three of 25 world records were broken by swimmers squeezed into the skintight suit.
Last December's European Short Course Championships in Croatia saw 17 world records fall, and that's when Fina decided to step in and do something about the situation.
Thank goodness.
After months of discussions with athletes, coaches and officials, they came up with a number of amendments, including these:
DESIGN: The swimsuit shall not cover the neck and shall not extend past the shoulders nor past the ankles.
THICKNESS: The material used shall have a maximum thickness of 1mm.
BUOYANCY: The swimsuit shall not have a buoyancy effect of more than 1 Newton (100 grams).
CUSTOMISATION: All swimsuits of an approved model must be constructed in an identical fashion with no variation/modification for individual swimmers from the samples submitted for approval.
But is it enough?
Not in my view. A swimsuit that goes up to the neck and down to the ankles and that provides any buoyancy effect at all should not even be allowed. In my opinion, that amounts to doping of the technological kind.
A swimsuit should merely be a cover for decency. Skin tight, yes. Made of nylon or polyester or lycra, yes too. And that's basically all you need. Just the bare essentials to offer durability and comfort in the water, without the suit being an aid to the swimmer.
Of course, there is the argument that as long as everybody has equal access to the suits, the playing ground is fair. But ultimately, sport should be about pure physical prowess, not garnished with technology.
Phelps may have broken Spitz' medal haul, but if Spitz had that kind of technology in his day, then maybe Phelps might not have achieved the feat.
Fina should make this ruling instead: all swimmers should wear what Mark Spitz and Dawn Fraser wore when they became swimming greats.
In the past, the man made the suit. Now, unfortunately, the suit makes the man.