example-image
Connect with Us:  

The Ripple Effect Of The Sad Suits Crisis

Jun 24, 2009  - Craig Lord

One more example of the chaos caused by the FINA decision last Monday. 

British swimmers have been thrown into turmoil on the eve of the final trials for the world championships in Rome next month after FINA, the international federation, reversed its decision of just a month ago, when it banned 100% polyurethane suits that enhance performance, and allowed them all back into the water.

The majority of British swimmers lining up over the next four days in Glasgow wear the Speedo LZR Racer that by January 1, 2010 may be banned as FINA imposes stricter limits that will remove from the water non-textile fabrics that aid speed, buoyancy and endurance. After a FINA decision to bar 100% polyurethane suits on May 19, it looked likely that the LZR would again be the leading "fast suit" in Rome, just as it had been in 2008, when it accounted for the bulk of the 108 world records set and was worn by some 90% of all medals winners at the Olympic Games.

But on Monday, FINA caved in to the demands and legal challenges of kit makers at the helm of a $13bn global swimsuit market, sport and leisure, and added 100 more  models to a list of 202 approved suits. In doing so, the international federation returned to the water the Jaked01 and several other 100% polyurethane suits that use more than twice the amount of the non-textile fabric that makes up the LZR, a suit that last year was labelled "technological doping" by some of the world's leading coaches as it became clear that times had improved around 2% across the board in many Olympic races.

FINA's capitulation was explained by one senior FINA source as "a response to the fact that suit makers and their lawyers are thumping on FINA's door in Lausanne and ringing the office every two minutes". Cornel Marculescu, executive director of FINA, admitted to having come under "enormous pressure ... from an enormous business interest worth billions."

Jaked, maker of the 01 model that is fast suit in demand this summer is estimated to have spent "just" 600,000 euros setting out its stall in the front row at the world championships, compared to the “tens of millions” (or market estimates of $6.3m] spent by Speedo on its LZR, and now holds sway over the Italian hosts in Rome, and FINA, which, it is believed, stands to make upwards of $35 million from the world championships.

Denis Pursley, head coach to Britain but at pains to say that he did not represent the views of British Swimming, said: "This is a disaster of great magnitude for our sport. It guarantees an unlevel playing field in Rome. It's just impossible for me to understand the thinking in this reversal of position at the eleventh hour. FINA are in violation of their own rules that say that suits have to be readily available to all competitors. There will be no equal access to suits. It puts us in a difficult position with our sponsor [Speedo].”

British swimmers are allowed to race in unbranded kit supplied by brands other than Speedo. FINA's "solution" to "available to all" is observed in Rome. All suit brands will be obliged to provide suits free of charge to any competitor who asks for a particular model or size. In effect, they must have millions of dollars of stock available to hand out to swimmers, or ask swimmers to wear apparel that has just been stripped off "still wet and probably peed in", as one Olympic medallist put it, by another competitor a few races before. Brits, Americans and Australians wishing to avail themselves of services from the suit room will have to have a marker pen with them in order to score out the non-Speedo branding on their borrowed other-brand suit (which, of course, may be interpreted by the other brand as causing damage to the suit that it has leased - what a mess). 

A British international who will stand up to race in Glasgow for places on the World-Championship and World Student Games teams said: "Three days out of the competition, I find myself having to think not only about my preparation, and my race, but about my suit. I don't WANT to wear a Jaked, or a B70 because I'd feel like I'm cheating ... incidentally, as a student and a non-funded swimmer, I also can't afford one ... but if everyone else is going to be wearing one, am I shooting myself in the foot if I don't? I am confused by the whole shambolic situation."

"It is ridiculous, just plain stupid," said a senior Britain coach. "FINA is not there to bow to suit makers, it's there to govern the sport and set rules in the best interests of the swimmer." Most swimmers now wanted to “get back to normal suits”, he said. “Their lottery funding depends on results at the world championships. You have some who might not even make it to Rome because of a suit, and then those who do get there will have their whole funding based on a result that is dictated by a suit. As a nation we could take the moral high ground and say we're not wearing this nonsense but if we do that, well ... take the sprint finals, it could be that we get no-one through to a final. That means no funding on the way to London 2012."

Of course, FINA is not the only party in such sad scenarios that requires to take a long, hard look at itself. For instance, what has British Swimming done to protect its swimmers, some ask. Did it call ion FINA to get it right, some ponder. Did it issue public criticisms of daft policies in order to the swimmers it represents that it stands shoulder to shoulder with their plight, ask others.

The advent of the Speedo suit in February 2008 sparked suit wars that has seen the number of serious players in the race apparel market soar from nine in 2004 to more than 25 now. Nike has walked away from swimming, while adidas has distanced itself from the mayhem in 2008, when Speedo's share of the race-suit market leapt to 61%. Sports-marketing research group SportsOneSource described Speedo as "the Kleenex of swimwear", while analyst Marshal Cohen of the NPD Group noted: "Not since the advent of steroids have we seen so many record-smashing events."

Speedo has long held the lead in the race suit market and has also been a lead player in research of new fabrics and engineering designs. The LZR, with its water-repellent fabric, polyurethane panels, bonded seams and of NASA design, cost "tens of millions", according to Speedo (more than $6 million is the market estimation) to create. But there are not enough Olympians to keep a swimwear company afloat on the back of expensive apparel that has a relatively short shelf life and is only useful to those who race. The money is in the leisure market. "LZR Racer is a pretty small part of our business, under 5 per cent," noted Helen McCluskey, president of Speedo parent Warnaco Group, last year. "But it's what gives us credibility."

"The halo effect on the brand and the rest of its swimwear" was described by Rune Gustafson, chief executive on international branding consultancy Interbrand, as "massive". The coverage of Michael Phelps racing to eight gold medals in Beijing was estimated to have been worth $3.6m to Speedo. But the Nottingham-based company is now under pressure. It spent more than $6 million on research into the LZR Racer, while TYR, an American rival brand now suing Speedo, USA Swimming and the head coach of the USA Mark Schubert on trade restriction grounds after investing what was reported widely in 2008 to have been "several millions ... for a return of just $1.5m", in the words of a TYR representative.

Then along came Italian newcomer Jaked. The Italian federation, whose head coach Alberto Castagnetti described the LZR as "technological doping" in 2008, pushed arena aside in order to link up with a company that by June 2008 had produced a 100% poly suit that logic suggested might go beyond the performance-enhancement capacities of a suit employing between 40 and 50% poly panelling. 

It took that to wake some good folk up to the idea that the stable door had been opened and that could only lead to one end: more horses would bolt and they had a target to chase and pass. That is what they did. By which time FINA was in bind, a bind that caused it, rightly, to listen to the world's leading coaches, now complaining that enough was enough. A couple of those coaches, and most significant of coaches at that - from the USA and Australia - were called to give their opinions and expertise on a new suits commission. That has led to accusations of bias, given that the swimming superpowers are both Speedo nations. Some suit makers in Lausanne last week have since complained about the fact that they faced a FINA panel that included a man wearing a Speedo shirt. That somewhat comical but slight insensitivity is, of course, as nothing to the ruination of the sport by apparel makers intent on making swimming an equipment-based sport.

Some newcomers have seen the light and are prepared to change in order to stay in the race pool. SwimNews understands that Jaked has already put into early production  a suit made of  far less that 100% polyurethane. Is that one of the reasons why FINA is now backsliding from 0% poly and 100% textile and "non-permeable" to 40% from January 1, 2010? Is that why it appears to now want a delay in going the whole hog until 2011 and settling the matter well in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games? Meantime, the bull is bleeding to death and it is a truly pitiful sight. The beast clearly needs to be put out of its misery.

On the apparent power of Jaked in a year that sees Italy host the 13th FINA world champs, one delegate who will attend FINA Congress in Rome next month said: "It [FINA] is hardly likely to turn around and tell the host nation that is bringing home the bacon, the first-class flights, five-star hotels and limos for FINA and its wife that it must rip up its contract with the national-team kit sponsor." 

And all the time, contracts are being ripped up throughout the world of swimming: federations in Japan, Germany, Italy, France and elsewhere have ditched one suit maker for another as one device is perceived to be "faster" than another. 

The bloodletting is about to reach FINA itself. One senior source described FINA’s latest move as "cowardly" and accused the four-man executive of cutting the ruling 22-person Bureau out of decision-making. "Our most precious event [world championships], and the most important stage for our athletes outside of the Olympic Games, is turned into a fiasco of the most hideous proportions." The source claimed that the Bureau had been "summarily dismissed" when it came to the decision-making process "until after such decisions have been made", and added: "All of us who work for the sport and look forward to this showcase of our greatest talent must be disappointed and outraged. No other professional organisation would tolerate such ineptitude."

Given that officials will be unable to identify the suits as having been approved or not, all suits must be handed in for independent testing a few days before racing in Rome and tagged with a bar code of approval that will be checked just before racing. The  expensive process - some say it may eventually run to "hundreds of thousands" - has been described as a sham by those who make this point: independent tests have not removed the majority of suits that coaches, sports scientists and swimmers, not to mention the statistics of a sport transformed from technique-based to equipment-based, believe wholeheartedly to enhance performance is a truly significant way and benefit some more than others on different strokes and distances.

FINA may now believe that too, if the efforts and money now being spent are anything to go by, but the pressure from some suit makers and the lust for the money that keeps the circus on the road are pulling the international federation back from taking the higher moral and ethical ground, from doing what it has a duty to do: to protect the best interests of swimmers and the sport of swimming.