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From The Mad, Mad World Of Montpellier
Apr 21, 2009 - Craig Lord
Action gets underway in Montpellier at French nationals and trials tomorrow but the suit wars are already boiling, according to witnesses at the latest scene of damage in the race pool and agency reporters at poolside in France.
Two headlines and a poolside witness statement sum up the mood in Montpellier: "World records possible, says Horter" (Lionel, coach to Amaury Leveaux and relative of the French rep for TYR, the suit that helped drive Leveaux into the future - and how - with three stunning world s/c records amid scenes of suit anarchy in Rijeka last December); "Jaked: the new winning suit"; and this from an eyewitness: "It's mental ... the pool is full of suit companies and swimmers trying out [new] suits during the warm up".
Stomach-churning, says another observer - and not because of the customary eve-of-race nerves but because you cannot tell, these days, what you might find your rival wearing when you line up to chase a place on your national team knowing that the suit being worn can mean thumbs up or thumbs down. After a meeting at which the FFN (French fed) told coaches that the only thing that would be checked in a pre-ready room before racing was the number of suits being worn: just one is allowed. There would be no checks to see whether any swimmer might be wearing a suit that is not yet approved by FINA. That is a reasonable position: FINA officials themselves don't know, so impossible to police such a mess at this moment in time. Denis Auguin, coach to Alain Bernard, has called for a definitive written statement on what can and cannot be worn and what checks will be made, to ensure that swimmers race for selection without risk of being removed because they had not understood the mind of officials in a world of confusion.
At a time when FINA is happy yet to "cooperate" with suit makers, it seems that at least some suit makers are busy peddling their latest versions of performance-enhancing suits and appear to have no appetite to roll anything back unless they are told to do so. And that on the very day that independent suit tests in Lausanne coincide with the first day of a meet that starts with swimmers aiming for world-championship selection wondering whether what they wear today will be gone tomorrow. We must all wait to see which of the devices being worn on the way to what are sure to be fast times by French swimmers - just as they have been all year so far in many places elsewhere - will survive or not, this summer and then in 2010.
Some suggest that FINA's phased solution is there to protect its main suit partner, Speedo. It is questionable whether what is going on in pools across the world right now is protecting Speedo. In many ways it could be inflicting lasting damage on a long-time supporter of the sport.
FINA has a breakfast with suit makers at 8am tomorrow morning (Wednesday) before all gathered troop off to see the machinery and mechanism of the independent testing being carried out in Lausanne. FINA has given an assurance that all suits of February 2008 onwards will be put through those tests (otherwise, the whole exercise is absolute nonsense and a vast waste of money ... it could even be called a confidence trick under those circumstances).
Montpellier will tell us the strength of a French team for Rome if all things remain unchanged in terms of what swimmers can and cannot wear this summer. From the e-mails we have received in the past few weeks, it is clear that the list of those key figures who are reaching a point at which they will tolerate this no longer is fast approaching. If FINA fails to get it right, it can expect revolution on a scale that will take the international federation by surprise in the same way as the revolution in performances took FINA by surprise in 2008. If the fast suits remain for much longer, the spotlight will fall increasingly on the politics of swimming and the positions of those who govern the sport.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on Jaked, with French media reports noting the Italian suit as the inevitable consequence of the "seismic chronometric shift provoked by the Speedo LZR last year". reports note that "anonymous swimmers are now mixing it with legends". As an example, they cite Rafa Munoz (ESP) and 'fly times that bring him level with Michael Phelps. Unfair, some say, but then Munoz, in a steel-like, glossy Jaked wetsuit lookalike, is travelling a full second faster over 50m than the world-record time in which Matt Welsh (AUS) claimed the world sprint 'fly crown less than five years ago. Some perspective: in 2003, go back a second from Welsh and you get 36 men in the frame. Go back a second from Munoz and you get...well, eight men. Progress - it's always been the same, right? Wrong. The sport is not the same. The sport we knew is in a coma. Some say dead. Up to FINA to prove them wrong.
Over in the Netherlands, Marleen Veldhuis wore Jaked for 100m free and 50 (world record) and 100m butterfly (56.69) and then the LZR for the 50 free world record. "We need clarity in the rules because without that, the door will be open for the validity of records to be questioned," she is reported as saying.
Frédéric Barale, coach to Coralie Balmy, tells the French media that "95% of Spanish swimmers at Spanish nationals wore the" Jaked. "Until FINA takes a decision, it is legal," he says. Balmy would wear one, he noted "because it is necessary to fight with the same weapons as the others ... if the Jaked is the best suit, we have to swim in it."
If anyone had spoke such a thing as recently as 2006-2007 seasons, they would have been regarded as an alien in the world of swimming, someone who had not quite grasped the spirit of the sport and its rule book. No longer. Anarchy reigns. "The rules have to be better defined," said Balmy's coach. "Today it does not follow that the best swimmer wins. The Jaked is a novelty, the continuation of 'progress'. That's what out sport comes down to." Beside him as the reporter spoke to the coach, Fabien Gilot, who in Montpellier will wear Jaked.
Frédérick Bousquet is unsure: "I'll try the Jaked but not for the 100m. Its a new sensation ... I haven't yet made my decision." Such is the nature of the new sport of swimming. Plant poppies and moss on the gravestone of George Hearn, let him hear not things that would make him turn. And as for "new sensation", the Jaked was around in Beijing. It has a new look now. Must be a newest version of a Jaked approved by FINA in January at a time when it was said to be committed to sorting out the mess of 2008. There is commitment and commitment. The moment is not too far away now when we will all be able to judge the nature of commitment.
Bousquet joked: "I threw one in the water and noticed that it didn't swim on its own. You have to put it on and swim." But then laughter is often accompanied by the word "nervous".
Coach Lionel Horter is more focussed on what will make the rest of the world nervous. There were, he said "several events in which in January and February French swimmers approached world-record pace. So why not." Well, depending on who does what, there are a fair few reasons why some might ask "why - and how".
His key charge, Leveaux is a case in point. This is where he went from 2007 to 2008, long and short-course, 50 and 100m freestyle:
That's progress for you. His target, at least on the clock, would, under Horter's regard for the chances of world records, be Eamon Sullivan (AUS) and those world records of 21.28 and 47.05. Horter singled out the 100m as an event in which "a good standard of performance" was expected as Leveaux faced Bousquet, in whatever, and Gilot, in a Jaked, among others, in whatever, will hunt for that remaining place in Rome (as well as those all-important relay berths - could be the world champions we are looking at, after all) behind pre-selected Olympic champ Alain Bernard.
The 100m heats and semis unfold Thursday, the final Friday, the 50m final (in which Leveaux is preselected and Bernard must fight for a place) Sunday. Day one sees Leveaux, world s/c record holder in the 50m 'fly, see how his suit helps him match up to a man who is half a second clear of the next best in the world right now swimming one length 'fly: France-based Spaniard Rafa Munoz.
Leveaux talks of Bernard wishing to seek revenge for having been beaten on minor occasions over winter (no place in finals at Rijeka in December under the four-per-nation-in-rounds-and-two-through rules). Bernard replies: "We will see here at the championships and then again in Rome this summer. I have trained to be world champion this summer and have done so in the same way as I did last year to be Olympic champion. You have to be ready on the day."
Auguin tells L'Equipe that Bernard has done things in training beyond anything he did last year. Time(s) will tell the story of this season of thrills and damages.
