Updated May 20 with updated suit list resolving 199/202 discrepancy explained in article.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, May 19. AFTER burning the midnight oil, the FINA Commission has released its list of approved swimwear through December 31, 2009.
Here is the full press release from FINA:
The FINA Commission in charge of the swimwear approval, formed by representatives of the FINA Executive, FINA Technical Swimming Committee, FINA Coaches Commission, FINA Athletes Commission, and FINA Legal Councillor had a meeting on May 18, 2009 in Lausanne (SUI) and after reviewing 348 swimsuits from 21 manufacturers forwarded its proposal to the FINA Executive, who decided the following:
– 202 swimsuits approved;
– 10 swimsuits rejected for not passing the tests of buoyancy and/or thickness;
– 136 swimsuits to be modified in accordance with “Dubai Charter” rule 3.1 c), as they don’t fulfill the requirement stating that “swimsuit material shall not be constructed to or include elements/systems which create air/water trapping effects during use”. The manufacturers have now a deadline of maximum 30 days (until June 19, 2009) to resubmit the same swimsuit for FINA approval, with the corresponding corrections (“Dubai Charter” rule 4.3 d).
Meeting FINA/Swimming Coaches
On May 19, 2009 FINA and a group of swimming coaches coming from 18 countries met at the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Lausanne (SUI), where Prof Jan-Anders Manson, Director of the Laboratory of Polymer and Composite Technology, presented the procedures of the testing process defined on the FINA swimwear approval regulations.
The exchange of opinions was very constructive and the direction to be taken on the swimwear approval process is certainly better understood.
At the bottom of this article is the list in full of approved swimsuit models at least through December 31, 2009. A discrepancy was discovered and reported by Swimming World that the initial list of approved suits only included 199 suits. That number did not match up with the FINA press release stating that 202 suits had made the initial cut.
Upon being informed of the discrepancy, FINA updated its list to resolve the discrepancy. The three suits added to the initial list were Speedo suits: LZR Racer full, LZR Racer pants – long and LZR Racer pants – short.
Additionally, the updated list has a different Rocket Science Sports suit listed in place of the “Swimskin Suit Sleeveless full.” It is now listed as the “Rocket 2skin full.”
In answer to a Swimming World inquiry, FINA has stated that it is against the organization’s policies to release a disallowed list. From a branding standpoint, being put on a list like that would be the death knell for a product even though manufacturers can go back to the drawing board and resubmit.
A second phase of testing regarding permeability will take place at the end of the year.
One big name left off the approved list was the blueseventy. The company has released its thoughts on the matter:
Today FINA released its list of approved suits for the World Championships in July. FINA rejected 10 high-tech racing suits and approved 199 others with 136 swimsuits to be modified in accordance with the “Dubai Charter”.
blueseventy submitted 11 models of suits for FINA approval, including tights and jammers. At this time, blueseventy suits are not listed on FINA’s site as approved models, but one of the 136 that need to be modified, and this includes the models that had previously been submitted (in late 2007) and had received approval.
blueseventy is stunned by this omission. “As a company, and personally, we were very comfortable with the criteria for testing that FINA had outlined, our suits passed well under the threshold for buoyancy and thickness proposed by them,” stated blueseventy’s Global Marketing Manager, Dean Jackson. “We have had confirmation that our suits passed the independent laboratory testing for both of these tests.”
Officially blueseventy is classified as one of the suits that “may cause significant air trapping when worn by the swimmers.” However, there are several other similar brands with suits that use exactly the same fabric, with a similar construction, that have passed without a problem. This confusing situation has led the company to seek clarification directly from FINA and blueseventy is awaiting their response.
blueseventy has 30 days to make modifications to the suit so that it no longer traps air, but the system around this is unclear since trapping air is not a measurable value and the subjective nature of this “testing” is not black or while. Initially the Dubai Charter and resubmission of these suits was in order to gain acceptance for the Rome World championships and it is blueseventy’s understanding that previously approved suits remain legal for all competitions.
“We are dedicated to working on the best solution to the short-term situation and will work closely with FINA on this process,” said Roque Santos, blueseventy Vice President of Swimming. “Most importantly, we care about swimmers, we care about our company and we care about fair play for all brands in this process.”
Two other significant omissions are the Arena X-Glide and the Jaked J01, which have been worn during world record performances this year. One question that FINA will need to answer is whether world records set this year in these now disallowed suits will be ratified.
Also missing from the list is the TYR Titan and the Aquazone Renegade.
In other news, U.S. Masters Swimming released the following statement regarding the impact of the FINA ruling on Masters in the U.S.
While FINA has listed the 202 approved swimsuits, FINA has NOT listed the 10 suits that have been “rejected for not passing the tests of buoyancy and/or thickness” or made a ruling on the “136 swimsuits to be modified in accordance with “Dubai Charter”.” Until FINA provides the definitive list of banned swimsuits and specific actions on the 136, we should not report any suit as banned in a USMS sanctioned event.
With FINA’s policy of not releasing banned suit information, Masters swimers in the U.S. will likely be swimming in whatever suit they want until further notice.
adidas (5)
TechfitPowerweb S8140602BJ B85779 full
TechfitPowerweb S8140603BJ B85777SL full
TechfitPowerweb S8140609BJ B85762 full – knee
TechfitPowerweb S8140607BJ B85768 pants – long
TechfitPowerweb S8140606BJ B85771 pants – short
Agon Sport L.L.C. (3)
2009 full – knee
2009 pants – long
2009 pants – short
Akron SRL (3)
Halifax Allison full
Halifax Buster full
Halifax Ark pants – long
Arena Italia S.p.A. (29)
Powerskin 2512450 full
Powerskin 2512850 full
Powerskin 2512550 full
Powerskin 2710650 pants – long
Powerskin 2906850 classic
Powerskin 2710550 pants-short
Powerskin R-Evolution 2522850 full
Powerskin R-Evolution 2522750 full
Powerskin R-Evolution 2522650 full
Powerskin R-Evolution 2786650 full – knee
Powerskin R-Evolution 2522550 full – knee
Powerskin R-Evolution 2522450 full – knee
Powerskin R-Evolution 2786250 pants- long
Powerskin R-Evolution 2786550 pants-short
Powerskin R-evolution + 2525650 full
Powerskin R-evolution + 2525450 full
Powerskin R-evolution + 2525350 full
Powerskin R-evolution + 2525750 full – knee
Powerskin R-evolution + 2525550 full – knee
Powerskin R-evolution + 2790050 pants – long
Powerskin X-treme 2513850 full
Powerskin X-treme 2514350 full
Powerskin X-treme 2513950 full
Powerskin X-treme 2513750 full – knee
Powerskin X-treme 2514450 full – knee
Powerskin X-treme 2514250 full – knee
Powerskin X-treme 2731750 pants – long
Powerskin X-treme 2925450 classic
Powerskin X-treme 2737650 pants-short
Asics Corporation (35)
TIL ALS503 full
TIL ALS505 full
TIL AMA503 pants – long
TIL AMA502 pants – short
TIL ALS502 pants – short
TIL ALS500 classic
TIL ALS504 classic
TIL AMA501 classic
TIL ALS501 classic
TIL – Cloth AMX964-4 full
TIL – Cloth ALX964-5 full
TIL – Cloth ALX964-6 full
TIL – Cloth AMX964-3 pants – long
TIL – Functional Layered System AMA515 full
TIL – Functional Layered System ALS515 full
TIL – Functional Layered System AMA516 pants – long
TIL – Functional Layered System AMA511 inner tights
TIL – Functional Layered System ALS511 inner tights
TIL – Functional Layered System AMA510 inner top
TIL – Functional Layered System ALS510 inner top
TIL + AMX1087 full
TIL + AMX1087-2 full
TIL + AMX1087 full
TIL + AMX1098 full
TIL + AMX1086 full
TIL + AMX1085 full
TIL + ALX1085-2 full
TIL + ALX1085 full
TIL + ALX1086 full
TIL + ALX1098 full
TIL + AMX1088 pants – long
TIL + AMX1088-2 pants – long
TIL + AMX1088 pants – long
TIL + AMX1083 classic
TIL + ALX1083 classic
Descente LTD (27)
III jan09 full
III jan09 full
III jan09 full
III jan09 full – knee
III jan09 pants – long
III jan09 pants – short
IV jan09 full
IV jan09 full
IV jan09 full
IV jan09 full – knee
IV jan09 pants – long
IV jan09 pants – short
I mar09 full
I mar09 pants – long
I mar09 full
I mar09 full
I mar09 classic
I mar09 full – knee
I mar09 classic
I mar09 pants – short
III mar09 full
III mar09 full
III mar09 full
III mar09 full – knee
III mar09 pants – long
III mar09 pants – short
III mar09 classic
Diana Sport (14)
Submarine Shinning Arrow 232M SA full
Submarine Shinning Arrow 250W SA full
Submarine Shinning Arrow 251W SA full
Submarine Shinning Arrow 233M SA full – knee
Submarine Shinning Arrow 253W SA full – knee
Submarine Shinning Arrow 230M SA pants – long
Submarine Thermo Fusion 202M full
Submarine Thermo Fusion 210W full
Submarine Thermo Fusion 221W full
Submarine Thermo Fusion 203M full – knee
Submarine Thermo Fusion 213W full – knee
Submarine Thermo Fusion 200M pants – long
Submarine Thermo Fusion 201M pants – short
Submarine Thermo Fusion 219W classic
Finis Inc. (11)
Amphibian pants – long
Amphibian ATS8-LTM28 pants – long
Amphibian ATS8-JM28 pants – short
Amphibian Long John ATS8-LJM32 full
Amphibian Long John ATS8-LJF30 full
Amphibian Short John ATS8-SJM31 full – knee
Amphibian Short John ATS8-SJF30 full – knee
Hydrospeed 2 Brief 1.10.131.101.28 classic
Hydrospeed 2 Clipback 1.10.024.101.28 classic
Hydrospeed 2 Jammer 1.10.132.101.28 pants – short
Hydrospeed 2 Race John 1.10.025.101.28 full – knee
Jaked SRL (2)
J03 full
J03 pants – long
Kiwami (1)
Kameleon full – knee
Mizuno Corporation (17)
Accel Suits full
Accel Suits pants – long
Swimsuit A 85RB-100 full
Swimsuit A 85RB-101 full
Swimsuit A 85OB-100 full
Swimsuit A 85OB-110
Swimsuit A 85OB-111 full
Swimsuit A 85RB-10009 full
Swimsuit A 85RD-100 pants – short
Swimsuit A 85RC-100 pants – long
Water gene 85RB-850 full
Water gene 85OB-850 full
Water gene 85OB-851 full
Water gene 85OC-850 full – knee
Water gene 85OD-850 pants – long
Water gene 85RC-850
Water gene 85RD-850
Orca (2)
RS1 full – knee
RS1 full – knee
Rocket Science Sports (7)
Rocket Light classic
Rocket Light
Rocket Sprinter
Rocket Sprinter
Rocket Trainer classic
Rocket Trainer
Swimskin Suit Sleeveless full (Now listed as Rocket 2skin full)
Sailfish GmbH (2)
Sailfish furious full – knee
Sailfish furious long full
Speedo (31+3=34)
(editor’s note: the original list of approved suits released on May 19 had Speedo with 31 entries. To rectify the discrepancy between the FINA press release stating 202 suits were approved, but only 199 were on the list, FINA releases a new list on May 20. Speedo had three more suits on that list.)
Original 31
Flying Fish body no arms 8-05887 full
Flying Fish Body no arms 8-05889 full
Flying Fish Brief 8-05892 classic
Flying Fish Jammer 8-05891 pants – short
Flying Fish Legskin 8-05890 pants – long
Flying Fish recordbreaker bodyskin 8-05886 full
Flying Fish recordbreaker kneeskin 8-05885 full – knee
Flying Fish strikeback 8-05888 classic
LZR Racer Pro Body Skin No Arms full
LZR Racer Pro Body Skin No Arms full
LZR Racer Pro Jammer pants – short
LZR Racer Pro Leg Skin pants – long
LZR Racer Pro Record Breaker classic
LZR Racer Pro Record Breaker Body full
LZR Racer Pro Record Breaker Knee Skin full – knee
Japanese LZR Hybrid SPE015 full
Japanese LZR Hybrid SPE015 full
Japanese LZR Hybrid SPE015 full – knee
Japanese LZR Hybrid SPE015 pants – long
Japanese LZR Hybrid SPE015 pants-short
Fastskin Pro 8 008093218 pants – short
Fastskin Pro 8 008133218 full
Fastskin Pro 8 008153218 classic
Fastskin Pro 8 008143218 full – knee
Fastskin Pro 8 008053218 full
Aquablade 8 205157031 classic
Aquablade 10 072 7031 classic
Aquablade 8 101077031 pants – short
Fastskin 8 100090001 pants – short
Fastskin 8 100080001 pants – long
Fastskin 8 202230001 full – knee
Updated list additions
LZR Racer full
LZR Racer pants – long
LZR Racer pants – short
Sports Hig (5)
F-09 full
M-12 pants- long
M-01A pants- long
M-10 pants- long
M-08 pants- long
Tyr Sports Inc. (3)
A12 full
A7 full
A10 full
(editor’s note: TYR has responded that the three suits approved are the Tracer Rise, the Tracer Light and a suit in development.)
Yamamotohokosyo Corporation (2)
YH-M-F pants – long
YH-M-F2 pants – long