| Last updated at 10:56 PM on 28/07/09 |
Phelps’ coach threatens to pull swimmer from meets over suit flap 
ANDREW DAMPF
The Associated Press
ROME — Michael Phelps’ coach says he could withhold the star swimmer from international meets until FINA bans high-tech bodysuits.
Swimming’s governing body FINA upheld a decision Tuesday to outlaw the suits next year, although the ban now might not come into effect until April or May — three or four months later than expected.
When told of the possible delay, Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, said FINA better “do something or they’re going to lose their guy who fills these seats.”
Bowman spoke immediately after Phelps was upset by unheralded Paul Biedermann of Germany in the 200-metre freestyle at the world championships.
Biedermann wore a 100 per cent polyurethane Arena suit, while Phelps stuck with last year’s LZR Racer from Speedo.
“We confirmed and re-confirmed the decisions of the general congress,” FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu said Tuesday.
Suit materials will be restricted to “textiles,” a definition of which will be determined by a scientific committee. FINA also announced specific standards for buoyancy, thickness and permeability. The complete rules will be given to swimsuit companies by Sept. 30.
“The rules will be applied in 2010. That can be April or May. It depends on the time manufacturers need to pass from polyurethane to textiles,” Marculescu said.
FINA acted after dramatic leaps in technology over the past 18 months led to a complete rewriting of the record book.
At the world championships, the last for suits such as Speedo’s LZR Racer and polyurethane models offered by Jaked and Arena, 11 world records were set in the first two days.
“These records in swimming have gotten to the point where they get a golf clap — just a polite applause,” said USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus. “They’re not as special and it just raises the expectations for the athletes.”
Canadian Alex Baumann, who won two swimming gold medals and set a pair of world records at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said FINA needed to act to keep any sort of integrity for the world records.
“In the end you want to make sure it is based on the talent of the individual, and the hard work of the individual, not on the suit they purchase,” Baumann, who is now executive director of Own the Podium Summer, said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “I do believe in technological advances but I also believe there is a fine line in terms of making sure it is actually the athlete that is producing the results.”
Baumann believes some of the records being set today will eventually be broken again, without the use of high-tech suits. He compared the situation to the records set by athletes in the days prior to drug testing.
“I do believe those records will get broken eventually, but it will take some time,” he said.
A spokesman for Swimming Canada said Canadian swimmers have the choice to wear what suit they wish, with many wearing the Jaked suits.
The Jaked were not included on the list of approved suits FINA released earlier this year, but they were not on the banned list either.
- With files from The Canadian Press
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