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Swim Suit Wars: In the Midst
of
Battle
At the time of this writing, swim
generals continue to wage more battles in the “Technical
Suit” wars, with the potential to leave an enormous number of
adult human casualties, beached on pool decks everywhere like giant
harbor seals and walruses. Those in high places will hand down
their decisions like nuclear bombs, suit companies will volley back
with law tactics and rhetoric shots of their own, and the foot
soldiers that make up all our swim teams will be left scrambling to
cover themselves in whatever has been deemed acceptable and fair,
and in the aftermath wondering what becomes of their investment to
fulfill that “need for speed.” There will be some sort of truce
until 2010, a cease fire if you will, but the foot soldiers will
continue to launch themselves in their body-shaping
resistant-cutting missile suits as often as they can leading up to
“D-Day” (deadline day), doing as much damage to the
record books, qualifying standards, and personal bests as possible,
so while at future gatherings as people talk in terms of
“remember when”, they too will have their story to
tell.
And I will be one of them. I love my
Blue Seventy missile suit. In just the ten minutes it took to first
put it on, I was able to embrace change and feel a part of the
sport’s progressive movement. And I can imagine a lot of
swimmers who are match-making on e-Harmony have their bio pics
taken in their tech suit, simply because it is the best they have
looked in a long time.
But if the “war for
progress” is lost, and the competitive swim suit takes giant
leaps backwards,
I will also have to swallow the disappoint pill if I don’t
swim as fast as I did recently.
Swim soldiers will again have to dig
deeper within themselves instead of their wallets to find
improvement. Ultimately, passion, desire, and dedication still must
come from within, and cannot be bought off of a hanger in a swim
shop.
If you are part of the mass majority
that derives portions of your sanity and self-worth from the rigors
and physicality of a daily workout and it’s positive effects
on many aspects of
your life, then what does it really matter where the hem of a suit
stops when I climb up on the blocks to compete? We shall
see.
Kerry
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