I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that there is a controversy brewing in swimming circles now that the Olympic circles will soon be rising in Beijing.
I was surprised to learn that it wasn’t about doping; lately anyone who runs or jumps or throws or dives is under pressure to prove that the activity of choice is being done so without unnatural enhancement.
No, this controversy is over what one swimmer calls “technological doping;” a new laser-like Speedo swimsuit.
Now I don’t know how old you are, but when I was growing up, the word “Speedo” was synonymous with some Fabio wannabe in the tiniest swimsuit allowed by local moral standards.
It was the suit that made the eyes of other men roll but made the eyes of women bulge.
And, yes, that’s the only reference to “bulge” that you are going to see here.
This is a new lightweight body suit made out of some space age material that repels soakage, staying “dry” even when going through the water.
The result?
Some 40 swimming records have been broken just since February, the first month the new suits were made available.
A recent CNN story chronicled the changes in swimming since the 1970’s when Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in one set of games.
He achieved that feat with a moustache and a full head of hair-no goggles, no cap.
Later swimmers thought that bare skin was the best surface to make contact with the water, leading to complete body shavings that left swimmers appearing like contestants in a Mr. Clean look-alike contest.
And if the water was cold enough I would imagine they would look more like early incarnations of the Blue Man Group.
Anyway, it’s now 2008, and the fastest way home is in a $550 dollar body suit that’s called a Speedo but doesn’t look anything like the Speedo I saw at the beach years back.
Trust me, not everything about the good old days was all that good.