NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

College recruiting in the sport of swimming has changed dramatically this past year, as coaches now have to factor in one very significant piece of information – the swimsuits.  In addition to asking athletes for their times, coaches now also have to ask if they were wearing “the suit.”  Speedo’s LZR Racer, and others like it, are taking the swim world by storm and helping to shatter the record books.  The suits have been controversial enough to cause FINA to step in and set some guidelines.  But until those rules go into effect, the old records will continue to fall.   This was on display at the Women’s NCAA Division I Championships in College Station, Texas last weekend. 

The California Bears won their first NCAA Championship and rewrote history in the 400-yard free relay.  Their time of 3:09.88 set a new NCAA, NCAA Championship Meet, American and U.S. Open record.   This weekend, the Men’s NCAA Division I Championships take place in College Station, Texas.  The Stanford Cardinal will see if they can take their #1 ranking and turn it into a championship title. You can all but guarantee more records are bound to be broken before it’s all said and done.   The list of guidelines regarding the suits, and the phases in which those guidelines will go into effect, can be found at the College Swim Coaches website. 

The information seems reasonable, although a bit complicated.  It will be interesting to see how it is all monitored. But, for now, FINA believes it has taken the right action in trying to protect the integrity of swimming. FINA President Mustapha Larfaoui:  ”With these amendments, FINA shows that it continues to monitor the evolution of the sport’s equipment with the main objective of keeping the integrity of sport.  While we remain open to evolution, the most important factors must be the athletes’ preparation and physical condition on achieving their performances.”    

It all sounds good.  I guess only swim times will tell.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Choosing the Right Fit, College Swimming, NCAA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.