Paul Biedermann (GER) must now be counted among the favourites for the world crown over 200m freestyle next month: at trials in Berlin, he cracked out a 1:44.71 European record wearing an "old-style" arena Revolution to get past the best ever of Tae-Hwan Park and approach the speed of Ian Thorpe. The German has a little to go before he approaches the 1:42.96 world record of Michael Phelps - but then there is another suit yet to try out.
Biedermann, who broke Pieter van den Hoogenband's European record this year with a 1:44.88 effort, emerged to say that happiness in Rome would be a fifth-place or better in the 200m. Today he moved up from 4th to 3rd best ever. Coached by Frank Embacher in Halle, Biedermann established new national marks in the 100, 200 and 400m during the Berlin meet.
The new all-time top 5, with Thorpe and Van den Hoogenband the pre-2008 entries on the list:
- 1:42.96 Phelps, Michael USA
- 1:44.06 Thorpe, Ian AUS
- 1:44.71 Biedermann, Paul GER
- 1:44.85 Park, Tae Hwan KOR
- 1:44.89 vdHoogenband, Pieter NED
Of the 25 best times ever over 200m freestyle, 20 were established since the advent of non-textile suits in February 2008.
Britta Steffen, double Olympic sprint free champion, won the 50m free in 24.45. She did not have the best of starts or races but emerged to say: "That's a shame for the 50m here but I'm very positive about the world championships in Rome." With a 52.56sec 100m free under your suit, who wouldn't be. Second in the 50m was training partner at SG Neukölln Berlin, Dorothea Brandt, on 25.05.
Their training partner Benjamin Starke then stepped up a a shiny Jaked01 to set a German record of 51.47 in the 100m butterfly. The standard had stood at 51.88 to Thomas Rupprath since 2002. Annika Mehlhorn held on in a tussle with Lena Kalla to win the 100m butterfly in another new national mark from the fast-suit era, 58.45, 0.18sec inside Daniela Samulski's best of April 2008. Kalla, 16 this year, clocked 58.98, a step up from a 2008 best of 1:00.28.
The nationals ended with 13 new, but mostly rather hollow national records, a trend that repeated what has come to pass the world over in this temporary era of 100% poly/neo/etc suits. Not hard to see why Germans would feel cheered by their nationals: for the first big meet in the fast-suits era, they are part of the game, no longer locked out because they had no access to the worst or best of the non-textile suits. For the likes of Steffen, it ultimately made little difference. It will now that she has a 100%er on her skin and a 52.56 on the board, if only in terms of delivering a different margin. Confidence is not to be overlooked either. Steffen worked with a specialist to turn her head around. Some who have shown themselves to be wobblers in solo events down the years have found a certain certainty of mind since finding the right suit.
When asked about the development of suits, Franziska van Almsick concluded, with a shrug to Tv viewers, "why not"? She had asked herself "time and again" in the past year "is that just because of a suit" and realised that the suit was significant. But she has stopped caring. Did it matter to her that she had two entries in the all-time top 10 performances list (multiple entries) over 200m free a year ago but the world record that stood to her until spring 2007 is now 26th best? "We can no longer compare what went before. This is a new era." A new sport, indeed.
We recommend she reads more about the nature of that new sport and while at it why not ask Germans who could not get the LZR and other suits last year how they felt, and ask those who cannot wear Jakeds and Hydrofoils this year how they feel now on the cusp of the circus that will surely unfold in Rome next month. Ask parents of kids who can no longer contemplate swimming as their sport of choice, given that selection, funding, support all depends on being chosen at a young age in an era when if you cannot afford a few suits at $500 or more a shot, you're shot. Ask parents of kids (and Franzi is a mother now) how they would feel if a coach said "look, this suit is capable of biofeedback and can affect your child's response to stress. It can reduce pain, it can affect peripheral CNS response - OK?"
Dr Lothar Kipke and his mates at Kreischa would be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of what you could do with a 14-year-old girl the moment a scientist happy to be paid or coerced came up with the right twist. In the meantime, a whole generation of juniors is threatened with the prospect of becoming the unsuspecting, unpaid generation of guinea-pigs just like the girls who preceded Franzi in the GDR when the doping doctors were up to no good. The potential for harm in the GDR (which became actual harm, as concluded by legal cases and criminal convictions for the likes of Kipke in the late 1990s) is now out there in the wider world, the whole world, in 2009, and some in FINA not only know it (hence why biofeedback is written into the Dubai Charter) but know that they cannot possibly test for it.
Dirk Lange, German head coach, suggested that at least there will be some kind of fairness to Rome in that all can wear anything they choose. He knows, of course, that that is not true, and that contracts would have to be broken, and more woe will need to be poured into a poisoned pool. He concluded that "technology" (that's the word that is used to describe materials that are far from new to the world, just new to the race pool) had to be controlled with rules that were fair to all.
But how to do that if you don't understand what the swimmers are wearing and what that is adding to performance? Back to FINA, which is now backsliding and will allow 40% of non-permeable materials, 20% above and 20% below waist, in 2010, before, supposedly, a return to textile-only suits - with "textile clearly defined - and a stated suit profile in place in 2011 and well in time for the Olympic Games in 2012. Meantime, the damage being done is legion. One big mistake, myriad consequences.
