Today in Lausanne, 13 (lucky for some) suit makers, including Speedo, will each get their 15mins of fame or infamy in an audience with FINA before the international federation's suits commission meets to decide whether there will be any change to the list of approved suits for the remainder of the 2009 long-course season.

Rumours are rife and range from "no change to the May 19 list", though "just the Jaked01 will make it back because it was approved before May 19", and on to "all suits will be allowed this summer because 'air trapping' applies to all suits and independent tests have not been able to say which suits help more than others". 

June 22 will deliver the facts, FINA having delayed the publication of any new suits list until after the Paris Open, which gets underway tomorrow and last until Sunday. 

For now, more certain is that there will be some uncomfortable moments in Lausanne today; for FINA, for the independent testing team and for suit makers. Feelings boil down to the question of whether it is fair to have left the Speedo LZR and other 2008-09 non-textile apparel in the water when they clearly enhance performance but then cut out things such as the Jaked01 and arena X-Glide when they also enhance performance, if not in a quantifiable way then surely in a significant and undeniable fashion.

Coaches and officials who have come down on the side of a full return to textile suits from January 1, 2010,  identify the background to that question as one that some in the sport have still failed to comprehend: the suits all behave in different ways and, in independent testing, have produced different results when it comes down to the varying levels of advantage provided to different morphologies and physiologies on different strokes and at different stages in a race. Looking at the first few seconds of a race alone, as the swimmer enters the water, streamlines, kicks and rolls into the stroke, it is clear that some suits provide more advantage than others, one suit against another, without even taking into consideration the size, weight and shape of swimmers and the alteration to their natural position in water.

As one head coach to a leading swim programme put it: "It amazes me that even now there are people who talk about dinosaurs and try to say that we're comparing Weissmuller with Sullivan and Bousquet and Bernard. That misses the point. We are comparing Popov, Hayden and Magnini with people who wore other types of suits, we are talking about crossover generations. This is about an overnight change in the conditions that apply to a sport and performance. There is no level playing field in swimming at this point in time."

The notion that "as long as everyone has access to these suits, there is a level playing field" died a death in the credibility race with any honest soul who witnessed events at the European s/c championships last December (and at a number of national championships across the world - France, Spain, Brazil, Japan among them). As such, FINA's suits room in Rome at the world championships in which swimmers can choose any weapon they want (even though many cannot wear anything but the suit that there federation has signed them up to) is perceived by some as being tantamount to applying a sticking plaster to a severed limb.

On the question of modifications to suits rejected on May 19, harsh words are likely  to be exchanged in Lausanne today.  One of the suggestions of Prof. Jan-Anders Manson, head of the independent suits testing team, to suit makers who had their apparel rejected on May 19 was to introduce perforations into the fabric that allow trapped air to escape. SwimNews understands that at least one major brand will point out to FINA today that its original suit already had such perforations in the fabric, but that feature was overlooked by the independent testing team.

In trying to appease suit makers and their commercial interests while travelling along the road to cutting out suits that make for an unlevel playing field, FINA has set itself between a rock and a hard place. It was inevitable, given that it is impossible for the international federation to please all parties in the debate.

Jaked is confident that its Jaked01 suit will be back on the list of approved performance-enhancing suits come Monday. "We are very confident and will return to Lausanne to explain why our suit meets the rules," said president of Jaked, Francesco Fabbrica, who named his company after his sons Giacomo (Jack or Jake) and Edoardo. He spoke to AFP at Milan airport. Fabbrica worked with small local businesses in his region of Italy to make a suit that is perceived to enhance performance beyond the LZR but cost a great deal less to develop. 

"We are the first to want clear rules that are the same for all," said Mario Fiorillo, commercial rep for Jaked and a member of the Italian 1992 Olympic gold-medal-winning water polo squad. "But we demand that the rules are not changed every month, because there is investment in research and we cannot change direction endlessly." 

Understandable, but somewhat rich, rival brands may say, given that Jaked is a make that did not exist before 2007 and became successful on the basis that the Italian federation sought a last-minute response to the Speedo LZR last year. 

That response took on new meaning in June 2008, when Jaked made a 100% polyurethane suit. The Jaked01 was rare at the Olympic Games in Beijing but was adopted as the fast suit of choice by swathes of swimmers over the northern hemisphere winter. Swimmers who wore that suit set massive personal best times, a few of those more visible because they established pioneering world records. 

The suit is constructed thermodynamically and is said to be 0.4mm thick. The AFP interview with Fabbrica talks of the suit compressing muscles and aiding buoyancy. It sells for 372 euros. Jaked was acquired (51% stake) by Inticom (maker of Yamamay suits) in December last year. 

At the helm, Fabbrica seeks to downplay the importance of a suit that he wishes to be seen as significant. He states: "We forget that it is the athlete who wins, not the suit."  If so, then let the swimmer wear a suit that does not enhance performance and does not change the natural position of different swimmers in different ways on different strokes and distances, say critics.

Fiorillo then let it be known that Jaked is at complete loggerheads with the direction that FINA is heading in. Jaked do not wish for a return to textile-only suits, suits that cut out polyurethane and other non-textile, non-permeable fabrics. They want to kit swimmers out in boats. That much is clear in this quote from Fiorillo: "Its time for swimming takes a technological step forward like skiing, tennis or cycling." 

Many in swimming have one word in reply: "No!" The past 12 months have proven beyond doubt that the way of the Jaked01 is the way of madness, turmoil, uncertainty and an unlevel playing field in which the performance of the swimmer and the work of coaches will be diminished so that swimming can bow at the altar of a suit that is not "technological progress" but simply the use of fabrics that aid speed, buoyancy and endurance in the face of the spirit of Rule SW10.7. 

From January 1, 2010, FINA is likely to have voted for textile-only suits. National federations have been asked for their opinion before the FINA executive makes a final decision on what direction to take in 2010. 

One senior FINA source said: "We're working now for 2010. In a number of ways, whatever next week brings, this summer is lost. There are many of us who wish that were not the case but the very big mistake was made last year and the sport is paying a price. Only a very firm line drawn at January 1, 2010 will get FINA out of the bind it finds itself in. There is no room for compromise now and suit makers have contributed in a big way to that being the case. It is right to ask federation what they think but the ultimate decision has to be based on what Prof Manson is telling us. And what he has told us so far leaves us in no doubt that these suits help different people in different circumstances. You can't have anything called a level playing field in those circumstances. In 2010, FINA has to make sure that it turns that around as a matter of urgency. It needs to specify what textile means and it needs to define a cut of suit and then draw a line beyond which the sport will not go if it wants to remain swimming."

In the meantime, swimmers and coaches continue to tread water in turbulent seas, not only uncertain about what they can and cannot wear a month out from a world championship  but knowing that some results this summer will continue to court controversy in a way that was never the case in swimming in bygone years, pre-2008, when the suit was not considered to be an issue.