WASHINGTON — After decades as ardent fans of Grand Prix racing
and of international swimming competition, we have come to the
conclusion that in both sports engineering has become more
important than the competitors. In Grand Prix driving it is not
surprising that engineering has come to overshadow the talent and
gallantry of the drivers. Auto races have involved technology
since the first racing car fired up. Today, however, the heroics
of the driver matter far less than their cars’ technology. The
unforeseen consequence has been that Grand Prix racing is boring.
Could international swimming suffer the same dismal fate?
If you have followed this year’s controversy over the use of
high-tech swimsuits in the Olympics, you will get our drift.
Michael Phelps might eclipse our fellow former Indiana swimmer,
Mark Spitz’s Olympic record of 7 gold medals (though he will have
to break the world record in every event as Mark did). However,
even in this Olympics attention is shifting ever so perceptibly
from the greatness of the athletes to the details of their
high-tech equipage and the collateral litigation of Speedo,
Arena, Adidas, and other swimsuit designers.
The companies are contending with each other for various rights
and with athletes whom they have contracted to wear their
equipment. If the controversies continue Phelps and his fellow
champions are going to be increasingly sharing the limelight with
corporate lawyers, business executives, and the brainy scientists
employed by these companies to improve their products’
“ultrasonically bonded seams,” “polyurethane layers,” and — who
knows — possibly uranium-235? Sure, this year’s Speedo high-tech
suit (the LZR Racer) is fast, but give the scientists a few more
years and it is eminently conceivable that the next generation of
Speedo swimsuits will have gone nuclear.
The sobering fact is that of all sports, swimming is one that
needs no high-tech gadgetry. Swimming involves training, stroke
mechanics, and the character of the athlete. That is what makes
the sport so exciting and even noble. At some point swim coaches
and athletes alike are going to have to reclaim the sport from
the techies, the fat lawyers, and the corporate executives. If
they fail, competitive swimming is likely to become a bore.
At the 1960s Olympics in Rome one of us (that would be Somers)
pooh-poohed that year’s innovation, to wit, a full-body shave
undertaken to enhance a swimmer’s time. The consequence was an
Olympic record in the semifinals of the 400-meter freestyle
(hurrah!), and defeat by the shaven conformists in the finals
(alas!). But shaving one’s body is a far cry from encasing it in
someone else’s skin — for instance, Speedo’s LZR, designed, it
is reported, in conjunction with NASA scientists.
The suit costs $550. It takes twenty minutes to put on. It fits
so tightly it is easily ripped. The surface of the suit is so
abrasive that one risks tearing one’s fingertips when putting it
on. California has banned the suit for competitors 14 and under.
The whole world should too and not just for adolescents. Not only
are these high-tech suits an absurdity to competitive swimming,
but they put the sport out of reach for any but the well-financed
competitor. They make international swimming an entirely
different event from the event that millions of athletes
participate in worldwide for the good of their health and the
thrill of competition. The suits admit into the Olympics not
highly competitive swimming but a grotesquery of swimming.
We are not alone in our criticism of this ill-conceived effort at
technological innovation. Google the topic for yourself. You will
see that many former swimmers and coaches have objected, as well
as many spectators. Those of a humorous cast of mind suggest that
today’s Olympians should compete as their Greek predecessors did,
buck naked. We think this goes too far. We suggest simply
outlawing any equipment that speeds up a performance beyond what
unadorned bodies might achieve in the water. That is: no swim
fins, no propellers, no water jets affixed to any part of a
swimmer’s anatomy.
We want to see the sport of swimming continue as it has over the
decades, improved by superior training, superior stroke
mechanics, and grit. As it stands right now, the achievements of
Michael Phelps in this Olympiad might mark him as the greatest
swimmer of all time, but with his performance enhanced by the
adventitious element of high-tech swimsuits doubts will linger in
the minds of the cynics. What if previous Olympic champions had
been able to wear swim fins or spray themselves in Vaseline?
