After a 15-month period in which the sub-minute and sub-2:10 clubs of breaststroke specialists have grown from 3 to 8 in the 100m and from 3 to 19 in the 200m, two of the world’s leading aces, both title hopes for Rome 2009, have pinned their colours to the mast: yes, they would gladly place their non-permeable floaty suits in a box marked “banned” and get the sport back to man vs man, woman vs  woman.

When asked for their opinion on the current chaos of suits and the truly significant performance-enhancing nature of current devices, Alex Dale Oen, the first Norwegian man to win a European title and an Olympic medalist last year the first, and Cameron van der Burgh, World Cup winner and world s/c record breaker this winter past, were more than happy to join the chorus of athletes and coaches who are no longer prepared to remain silent. 

While providing some insightful answers for a future SwimNews “In the Arena: How Rivals Square Up”, Dale Oen, one of four men in the sub-minute 100m club who earned membership in a permeable suit, said: “I would be so happy to go back - even to briefs. I don’t care what we race in, as long as it is the man or woman that does the job and not the suit. You see people do times that you know they have not done the work to do. It makes me sick to my stomach. It’s not right. What those who have worked really, really hard to do, others seem to do by just putting a suit on. 

“We see people who have done not nearly as much work do those times that took us years to achieve. I was really happy about what arena said earlier in Manchester 2008, like 'ok, if you accept this LZR that will be the start of a new era, careful’, but FINA did not listen and now look where we are. I just hope that Beijing was not the last Olympics to be close to fair...for us it seems that Athens 2004 was the last Olympics that was truly down to the person not the suit."

His views reflect similar ones from many leading swimmers in the world in a season that has seen suit wars descend into further chaos as FINA works on finding a more permanent legally binding framework for the sport to operate in by 2010. The international federation is now playing catch up at the end of a period in which the launch of the LZR brought to an end a time when FINA had no need to interpret a rule banning devices as having any bearing on suits because suits were not perceived as devices. In 2008, the suit became a device that aided speed, buoyancy and endurance.

An independent testing process in Lausanne is now learning much about the properties in those devices that make them performance-enhancing but the full extent of that work will not be felt until next year. Debate continues about how much non-permeable material to allow. Many are now asking: why have any?

Asked if he would be ready to put his “fast-suit” in a box marked “banned” provided that the world returned in unison to a time when the sport was not equipment based, Van der Burgh said: “I think most swimmers would say ‘is that rhetorical?’ It’s sad what’s happened. I would be more than willing to go back, and so would any great or good swimmer. Some random Joe puts on a random suit right now and becomes superman right away. It takes it out. Times don’t mean anything these days. I didn’t wear neoprene or anything like it in 2007. It doesn’t have the same vibe now to break a world record. It’s lost its special nature. It’s like monotonous.”

In 2009, there have been 12 world long-course records so far. If you take the total number of world records set in all post-Olympic, world-championship years from 1992 onwards ('94,'98,'01,'05 put together), January to mid-May, you get 9. 

Van der Burgh is currently spending some days with Dale Oen in Bergen before resuming his new regime under the guidance of Kosuke Kitajima’s guru, coach Norimasa Hirai. He and Dale Oen will don an arena X-Glide like that worn by Alain Bernard on the way to the first sub-47sec 100m freestyle last month. IF FINA tests pass the LZR and the X-Glide, it is hard to see why Bernard's time should not count as a world record: there is a strong argument that says that the LZR, through approved by FINA in 2008, broke the letter spirit of a rule book that bans aid to speed, buoyancy and endurance. Beyond that, the X-Glide is a competitive fast suit. It is what the sport signed up to when the LZR took the plunge. It is, under current circumstances, just as fair game as the Jaked and all the rest of the fast body socks.

Van der Burgh said: “I was speaking to Alex and saying that we have the X-Glide now, we'll wear it and compete this summer if that's allowed, but I didn’t want to wear it because it will be banned by December. I don’t want to do 58.2 in the 100m and then never be able to get back there. It would be so demoralizing and depressing. The worth of a personal best is immense. It’s what keeps you going." 

FINA’s second phase of finding a solution to the suits crisis will place restrictions on the use of non-permeable materials in suits. The debate centres on a 50% limit but the mood to cut out non-permeable altogether is gathering momentum among the people who matter most: swimmers and coaches. Arena, adidas and several other suit makers such as Agon Swim have been keen to see a return across the line crossed in 2008 that saw non-permeable materials never before seen in suits - and assumed by many not to have been allowed. 

Should much of everything from the LZR to the Jaked and the X-Glide remain in the water this summer, and it looks likely that they will, then those of the same mind as Dale Oen and Van der Burgh will have no option but to go with the fast flow and then set the summer of 2009 in a drawer aside marked: “When we were allowed to wear body props and other devices deemed to represent progress”. The challenge will then be to start again. 

As one leading observer put it: “Better that than continue down to the death of swimming as we've known it. Last year was bad enough. What we’ve seen in the past three months might not have been achieved in 10 years before. We’ve got 30 to 40 nationals records falling at one four-day meet in some countries. It makes of mockery of the whole sport.”

Dale Oen and Van der Burgh will feature in the June edition of our series, which poses the same questions to two big rivals, while later this month we will bring you insight into the worlds of triple Olympic gold medallist and Best Woman at the Watercube, Stephanie Rice (AUS), and  Hannah Miley (GBR), breaker of European records over 200 and 400m medley this year and world top three in both events this season. Both Rice and Miley have taken a neutral stance on which suit to wear this season and have tried out various brands in an effort to find which suit suits best. Not easy for medley specialists when different suits provide advantages and disadvantages depending on stroke and distance. A sensible path then for Rice and Miley at a time of uncertainty, when freedom of choice is the best place to be in.