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Elliot's Briefs Brush With Swimming History

Mar 18, 2009  - Craig Lord

On a day when a Brit became the first man to fall foul of the new international one-suit rule, USA Swimming reinforces the no modesty message to its membership

No blushes were spared at the British Gas Championships here in Sheffield today as 21-year-old Craig Elliot became the first man in the world to fall foul of the five-day-old international one-suit rule.



Forever to be a briefs footnote in swimming history after donning a pair of old-style trunks before climbing into his first pair of race leggings, Elliot raced in the first final of the day at trials for Rome 2009. The 100m breaststroke race was won by James Gibson in a best time of 1:00.22.  

Elliot emerged to find that he had been disqualified for breaking the one-suit-only rule in force since FINA addressed concerns over buoyancy in suits at its Dubai Bureau meeting last Saturday.



Warnings were delivered over the public address system in Sheffield both yesterday and today, while coaches were gathered together to reinforce the message to swimmers: one suit only in all cases. Elliot apparently believed that that would not apply to leggings but only full bodysuits.

Paul Hogg, coach to Elliot in Cockermouth explained: "Craig had never swum in leggings before It felt before the race that they [were] rubbing, so he put on ... training trunks. I'm not very happy. He should have just swum in trunks. He's obviously a bit upset and he'll be swimming in trunks tomorrow."


FINA's line is that officials must be more vigilant. The swimmer should have been taken out at the start and invited to take the top suit off in order to be able to climb on to the starting blocks.


 The incident came on a day when the USA banned the use of modesty briefs and Therese Alshammar, the Swedish sprinter, dropped her appeal against disqualification after wearing two suits but labelled as "sexist" Australian rules that fly in the face of FINA's ban on the use of modesty briefs. The world champion said: "I would almost claim that's a bit sexist saying that the men can cover their private parts up with briefs and women can only also wear briefs."

In a letter sent to USA Swimming membership, Bruce W. Stratton, Chair, USA Swimming Rules & Regulations Committee, wrote:

 "There have recently been a number of questions regarding the use of two swimsuits during  competition.  Although the USA Swimming Rules & Regulations do not specifically address his, FINA has interpreted its General Rule GR 5.3 to allow the use of only one swimsuit during competition.   

 "Our Rules & Regulations require that USA Swimming’s technical swimming rules conform to those of FINA.  In order for our interpretation to conform to that used by FINA, the following interpretation is being made, effective immediately. 

"For purposes of Article 102.9 of the USA Swimming Rules & Regulations, Swimwear, the use of more than one swimsuit at a time during any USA Swimming sanctioned or approved competition is prohibited. If you have any questions regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact me."