Centenary Of Sorrow
Craig Lord
Dec 7, 2008

2009 Best Performances

200 METRES BACKSTROKE

#CountryTimeNameIPSMeet
1RUS1:48.55Vyatchanin, Arkadi1009SALNKDEC
2RUS1:49.22Donets, Stanislav1000EURSCDEC
2ESP1:49.22Wildeboer, Aschwin1000EURSCDEC
4JPN1:49.92Irie, Ryosuke991JPOPNFEB
5FRA1:50.82Roger, Pierre979NOUMMAY

Comment: As the last week of serious international racing dawns, the tally of world records set in 2008 stands at 95. The Euro s/c Championships in Rijeka, Croatia, this week will surely threaten to take the number of global standards set this year to 100 and more. How fitting for FINA's centenary year - but not, sadly, something the sport ought to be celebrating. Many are not. They know the truth and they know where it is all leading to.

The latest three world records - to Coralie Balmy with a 1:53.18 in the 200 free, Amaury Leveaux with a 22.29 50 fly and Alain Bernard, with a 45.69 in the 100 free at French nationals in Angers - confirm the problem. On the one hand Balmy - the first black woman since Enith Brigitha of the Netherlands in 197, to be fastest ever in the world in any solo event and the first to hold an official short-course world mark - is a super-talent but we have no idea how much whatever suit she was wearing helped her to get past Libby Lenton, who was earing pre-2008 technology when she set her best 200 free time. On the other we have Leveaux. If it is not the suit, then we must suspect doping. Anyone throwing their arms in the air right now - don't waste your energy. Let's agree to call it the suit. It must be one or the other.

Same goes for Bernard and the sprinters following him home to ensure that within a year four Frenchmen race inside the time in which the world s/c title was won back in April at a meet that confirmed the dawn of a suit-assisted era in swimming.

Consider the 'fly dash in Angers: 22.29 for a Frenchman who not only swims 0.21sec inside a world record that also relied on technology but races 2.01sec faster as a 23-year-old than he did as a 22-year-old - over 50 metres. A couple of years earlier he clocked 23.67. That remained his best until the past month. The drop to 22.29 is out of the norm. Off the chart. No question. We're not talking about 50m on the way to a personal best somewhere down the world ranking: this is 50m on the way to what is statistically the best ever seen by a whacking margin over such a short distance, for a man who entered 2008 with a best time of 24.30. Yes, we know Leveaux has been working hard, turned himself around, did all the right things, etc etc. But anyone with any knowledge of swimming also knows that 2sec improvements over 50m were not standard events in the world before 2008. Leveaux is not alone, though his example is extraordinary. The one factor all of these swims have in common: the suit, and no real need anymore to mention the brand because too many of them are helping in a far too significant way. Just 0.08sec behind the Frenchman was Rafa Munoz. He's just 20. Improving. And how: from a best before techno season of 23.18. 

Here are Leveaux's best swims:

  • 22.29 final this weekend
  • 22.73 prelim this weekend
  • 23.24 last month
  • 23.67 going into 2006
  • 24.17 going into 2005
  • 24.28 2006
  • 24.30 2007 season best

And here's Balmy's progress at 23 years of age: 

  • 1:53.18 Dec 2008
  • 1:54.05 Nov 2008
  • 1:54.43 Dec 2007
  • 1:54.49 Dec 2008
  • 1:54.96 Dec 2007
  • 1:55.97 Dec 2007
  • 1:56.77 Dec 2006
  • 2:00.73      2005 best
  • 2:01.22      2004 best

That's eight seconds off a 200 free between 19 and 23 years of age to the best time ever seen. Some of that is undoubtedly because Balmy is hugely talented,  is a great technician and doubtless works hard. Some of it is the suit. No doubt at all. It oughtn't to be so. It diminishes the achievement of Balmy and her coach. It lessens the impact of her record. 

Bernard's blast in the 100m in Angers - a 45.69 from a previous best set in November of 46.28 and a 2007 best of 46.39 - and the three performances behind him alter the all-time rankings yet again.

Here's the all-time top 10 this week last year (previous season best is listed in last column):

  • 45.83 Nystrand, Stefan 1981 SWE SCM2008 47.05
  • 46.25 Schoeman, Roland 1980 RSA SCM2005 47.53
  • 46.25 Crocker, Ian 1982 USA SCM2004  
  • 46.52 Magnini, Filippo 1982 ITA SCM2006 47.61
  • 46.64 Draganja, Duje 1983 CRO SCM2004 49.32
  • 46.74 Popov, Alexander 1971 RUS SCM1994 48.44
  • 46.75 Frolander, Lars 1974 SWE SCM2000 47.05
  • 46.81 vdHoogenband, Pieter 1978 NED SCM2004 47.20
  • 46.82 Sullivan, Eamon 1985 AUS SCM2008  
  • 46.87 Bousquet, Frederick 1981 FRA SCM2004  

Here's the latest all-time top 10: 

  • 45.69 Bernard
  • 45.83 Nystrand
  • 46.25 Schoeman
  • 46.25 Crocker
  • 46.26 Leveaux
  • 46.33 Gilot
  • 46.52 Magnini
  • 46.64 Draganja
  • 46.66 Bousquet 
  • 46.67 Adrian
  • 46.67 Deibler
The 100th world record of the year is nigh. Watch for much more in Rijeka - in a variety of suits. FINA had so much to celebrate in 2008, its centenary year. It had so much to look back on with pride, some things it needed to look back on in anger and in sorrow. But as 2008 comes to a close the international federation could not have started the next 100 years of its existence on a worst footing. More anger and sorrow lie ahead if the suits debacle is not sorted out - and fast.

FINA is an oft-misunderstood term. It means everyone in the sport of swimming, the swimmers, the coaches, the federations who all embraced a genre of suits - some through choice, others because they had no choice - that has fast-forwarded the sport into a danger zone. Many have now seen the light and are working to save the day for the sport and FINA.
 
There is time yet to stop the suits chaos, to bring a halt to the technology that has changed the nature of the sport and will lead it down a dark road. It is now the turn of FINA politicians to see the light too - and to act. The rule book is in their hands. So far, FINA at the table, the bureaucracy and governance side of things, is no more at fault than FINA in the pool. Whether that remains the case will depend on what pans out over the next two to three months. 

There are some in FINA who are still in denial. They believe that all of this talk of technology is damaging the sport. They believe that "critics" of the suits are wounding the sport. They think that if we all just stop writing and talking about this, the problem will vanish into thin air. It won't. I even hear from some coaches and federations that some in FINA have said that the media's job is to "report exactly what they see and nothing more". No interpretation, no comment.

As in "I saw a train pass through the town in the night. I saw it pass through every night" (as opposed to I saw a train pass through the town in the night. We suspect it was carrying jews to their death"). As in "The President said that the jobless figures show things are getting better"  (as opposed to, the way that officials have been told to report the jobless figures means that it looks better but in fact there are 300,000 jobless people no longer counted in the figures) ... and on and on and on. Of course, it would have taken - and in some cases did take - far, far more courage to speak out about jews and trains in the night. Shocking to even mention such things in this context. Swimming is not on a par. It cannot compare. I do not intend to compare. But few will have missed the point: reporting the news is not just about stating "Amaury Leveaux set a world record of 22.29" Full Stop. It is about describing how he did it. It is also about placing all that happened in context. His improvement is off the chart. It comes in a year in which many, many others have also improved "off the chart". The one thing they all have in common: a fast suit.

The suit has mattered as much as the swimmer this year. That was a mistake. If in the years ahead the swimmer is to count as much as he or she used to, change is needed to the rule book - deep and meaningful change. The sport is in crisis not because of "critics" and talk of suits. It is in crisis because of the suits and their impact on the sport. The moment FINA acknowledges that is the moment that they can hope that the problem will indeed vanish - one of these fine days.