Phelps loses. Is it the suits?

Of course it's the suits. Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all-time and most famous person to rip it off a bong, came in second in the 200 meter freestyle yesterday at the World Championships in Rome. This was the first individual race that Phelps did not win in four years.


He lost to German Paul Biedermann who set a world record with 1 minute 42.00, shattering Phelps’s year-old world record of 1:42.96. At the Beijing Games, Biedermann finished fifth with a time of 1:46.
Biedermann said, “It was amazing to swim against Michael Phelps. I was there when he won his eighth gold medal. Just to live this moment and now I’m actually faster than him — I feel absolutely great about it.”

Don’t kid yourself Paul – you’re not actually faster than Michael Phelps, based on your more buoyant swimsuit, you were assisted in your victory over Phelps. What would happen if both swimmers competed in cotton boxers? Would Biedermann still be faster than Phelps?

In the first three days of competition, 63% of the races witnessed a world record, or 15 out of 24.

Phelps was unable to “level the playing the field” and use a similar swimsuit since he is sponsored by Speedo. Speedo’s swimsuits are not made entirely of polyurethane like Biedermann’s. FINA has banned these suits startining January 1, 2010, but is now unsure when the ban will take place. The lack of a definitive date has irked Phelps’ coach who has threatened removing him from international competition.

Initially, the goal was to have these swimsuits banned before the World Championships so the record book would not be skewed out of proportion. Unfortunately, with FINA’s lack of progress, they damaged the sport’s biggest stars credibility and now made these current world records that much more difficult to break for future swimmers. Have the decision makers at FINA have been drinking the Kool-Aid from Major League Baseball? If so, time to switch to a new beverage.

High-Tech Suits Are Banned

In a move that did not surprise anyone, FINA, swimming’s governing body, has banned high-tech swimsuits. However, like most sound decisions, the ban will not start until 2010, allowing swimmers one last hurrah at this weekend’s World Championships in Rome.

When Speedo introduced the LZR Racer swimsuit seventeen months ago, more than 130 world records have fallen. Some swimmers supported the measure including the sports biggest star, Michael Phelps. FINA’s new proposal is that the suits be made of permeable materials and that there be limits to have much the suit covers one’s body.

Now the debate has begun as to whether these swimmers were cheating by using the enhanced swimsuits. One swimmer, Rebecca Adlington, said she would never take a drug so why should she be considered a cheater for swimming in LZR Racer. Mark Schubert, the general manager of the United States national team, suggests that the records from this era should be wiped out because they were achieved through artificial assistance.

This debate has many parallels to the steroid era in baseball. Athletes claiming that they would never knowingly cheat. However, as long as what they are doing is not against the rules, they will take whatever edge they can find. Previously, Italian freestyler Federica Pellegrini wore two swimsuits on her way to a gold medal in Beijing to make her more buoyant. Like baseball dealing with the steroid era, swimming will be debating how to deal with the swimsuit era and those who are unable to maintain their prior levels of accomplishments will be forced to admit that it was a result of the suits.

Dara Torres Tested for PED's

According to Dara Torres' Twitter page, she was subjected to an unannounced drug test by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) yesterday. In her words, “Nothing like getn ready 2 jump in the pool and USADA (drug testing) shows up! Tried to hold it all practice, got 3/4 of the way!!”

At least we know USADA is doing their job and are apparently making unannounced visits to athletes out of competition. If Torres is still taking her medications, the test will come back positive, but she has a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for asthma, so it’s all good. Athletes without the TUE would come up positive and be subject the sport’s governing body regarding violation of their doping rules.

For Torres to be all bubbly about testing seems a bit insincere. An examination of the facts reveals that she was diagnosed with asthma a little over two years ago. She spends over $100,000 on support for her training and supervision of her child, benefits that younger swimmers do not have. Again, it begs the question, someone with the financial wherewithal to see the best doctors and trainers being diagnosed with asthma at 39 seems strange. After being the recipient of the TUE, she then goes on to post times that were faster than when she swam 20 years ago. We have learned that some of the explanation comes from changes in swimsuit design, but using drugs that would have a teammate suspended does not seem that noble. If she was experiencing significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance, how come this issue was not discovered at an earlier time?

While it’s a great story that she was able to come back and break records, a closer look reveals some questionable actions taken on her part to achieve those results.

FINA Bans Some Swimsuits

In the debate as to whether swimsuits are performance enhancing, a decision has been made and the answer is...yes.

FINA, the international swimming federation, has moved to reject 146 types of the high-tech suits. 136 of the suits have been offered the option of modifications within 30 days. This timeline would accommodate the world swimming championships in Rome that begin July 19th.

Grant Stoelwinder, a leading swim coach from Australia, said many swimmers were fooling themselves thinking their abilities were improving when it was due to the technology of the suits. He said minor benefits were achieved through added buoyancy, reduced surface drag or compressing a swimmer’s body, into a streamlined and efficient position.

One company that came out relatively unscathed from this development was Speedo and their top swimmer, Michael Phelps who wears one of their LZR swimsuits. Fifteen versions of the LZR line were approved by FINA.

Aaron Peirsol beat Phelps in the 100 meter backstroke this past Saturday, but was wearing a suit that has now been banned by FINA. We'll see who performs better when the two meet next on a level playing field.

Are Swimsuits Performance Enhancers?

In 2008, 108 swimming records were broken. Many were looking for an explanation as to how all the records were falling. During the Beijing Olympics, much attention was given to the new swimsuits created by Speedo. Some swimmers were wearing multiple swimsuits to increase their buoyancy during competition as Italian freestyler Federica Pellegrini wore two on her way to a gold medal in Beijing. It has been reported that some competitors have went with as many as three swimsuits looking for that competitive edge.


In an earlier post as to why athletes dope, athletes are always looking for an edge, real or perceived, legal or illegal, right or wrong. Even the average Joe is looking for an edge. Take Joe the Plumber from the 2008 presidential campaign. He didn't pay his taxes; whether right or wrong, he wanted to keep more of his money because he was greedy similar to these athletes' greed in driving them to take a "whatever means necessary" approach to “make it.”

In the world of swimming, the international governing body, FINA, has had enough of these shenanigans. On March 14th, they released a charter providing clarity on new international rules where technology and the number of suits will not be a factor in determining one's accomplishments. According to the charter:

• Swimsuits may no longer cover the neck or extend past the ankles or the shoulders.

• Swimmers may wear only one suit and will follow the body shape to avoid recent compression methods.

• Buoyancy and thickness will be measured by an independent testing team in Lausanne, Switzerland, led by Professor Jan-Anders Manson.

• All swimsuits, even those previously approved by FINA, must be submitted to the independent testing team by March 31.

The executive director of FINA, Cornel Marculescu, summed it up best when he told The New York Times, “Definitely the focus got to be too much on the technology instead of on natural development. The most important thing is we keep our values, and our values are the values of athletes, which is their physical preparation and effort."

The values of all athletes and the common Joe are what we, as a society, have been getting away from as we pursue what we think is going to be greatness. When others see what decisions these athletes made to achieve that greatness, only then will people have to reexamine their own values and allow us to experience the great moral awakening.

Jessica Hardy Fails Test for Substance that Ensnared Trainer

U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy tested positive for the banned stimulant clenbuterol last week and is in the process of expedited arbitration proceedings to see whether she can swim at the Olympics next month. Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator belonging to a class of drugs known as beta-2 agonists. It is similar to albuterol which is one medication that Dara Torres currently uses legally by having a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). Unlike albuterol, no TUE's are permitted for clenbuterol because clenbuterol and zilpaterol are considered anabolic agents.

Clenbuterol has also been mentioned here when Big Brown trainer, Rick Dutrow's horse, Salute the Count, tested positive for two times the allowable amount back in May. The drug is an approved medication in horse racing used primarily as a bronchial dilator, which increases lung capacity.

I'll float two possible scenarios to explain Hardy's positive test:

One, Hardy has asthma, a TUE and accidentally grabbed the "wrong" inhaler which led to the positive test on July 4th while tests on July 1st and 6th were negative.

Two, as Gary Hall Jr. said earlier that the sport was adopting "entertainment morals" perhaps Hardy could speculate that a teammate sabotaged her asthma medication with the banned stimulant. If that type of reality tv shenanigans occurred, that would draw more interest to the pool and provide a whodunit element ensuring everyone on the team received their 15 minutes of fame...Now that would be entertaining.

Dara Torres is on PED's...Legally

NBC is pinning its ratings hopes for the Beijing Games on the momentum surrounding the unbelievable story of 41-year old swimmer Dara Torres. After her World Record performance at the Olympic Trials, it is now speculated that she will be the flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies on 08.08.08.

Skeptics have questioned how it is possible that she swam faster this year than 20 years ago. Other recent athletes whose performance improved in their 40's were aided by PED's, most notably Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds.

This performance is made possible by the financial resources available to an ex-model and the daughter of the one-time owner of the Aladdin casino (along with Wayne Newton) combined with her Type A personality devotion to training, according to a piece in the New York Times. She reportedly spends over $100,000 a year on a bevy of coaches (head, sprint and strength) and receives additional support from two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny.

It turns out, this performance is possible in part (and what NBC and the rest of mainstream media fails to inform the public) by performance enhancing drugs. Torres' has a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for Symbicort (active ingredient formoterol) and Proventil (active ingredient albuterol) to treat asthma which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2008 Prohibited List under Beta - 2 Agonists. Unusual in Torres' case, her asthmatic condition was diagnosed only 18 months ago.

Amy Van Dyken, a former gold medalist swimmer, suffers from asthma. In a 1999 CNN online chat, Van Dyken admitted to using a "Ventilin (active ingredient albuterol) inhaler every day as needed. I'm on a Flovent (active ingredient fluticasone) inhaler twice a day; I'm on Serevent (active ingredient salmeterol) inhaler twice a day and a bunch of other stuff." She went on to win two Gold Medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Two of the medications mentioned are beta 2 agonists, but these drugs were not banned until September 2001. Van Dyken was also forced to testify to the BALCO grand jury in 2003. Gary Hall Jr., a former teammate of Van Dyken, recently questioned the validity of her accomplishments by comparing her to Marion Jones. Hall also doubts that the sport is clean. He is aware that the dopers will always be in front of the testers. Hall said, "This sport has become entertainment and it has taken on the morals of the entertainment industry where you can cut corners - and cheaters do prosper." Van Dyken has never tested positive for any PED.

Asthma and sports is a topic that no one wants to address. Why do more Olympic athletes suffer from asthma than the general population? Among athletes surveyed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 10% took asthma medications yet only 1% of the general population suffers from asthma. The number of Australian Olympians calling themselves asthmatic jumped from 10% to 21% in 12 years. In the Winter Olympics the number of people using asthmatic drugs is much greater. According to the late International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical chief Alexander de Merode, 70 to 80 percent of the athletes are using asthmatic drugs. The question is why this abnormality when it comes to Olympic athletes and the logical answer is that the substances used to treat asthma improves performance.

Changes to the asthma assessment regarding the use of beta - 2 agonists were made in 2001 by the IOC after some disturbing trends were discovered at the 2000 Sydney Games. There was a large increase in the number of athletes notifying the panel of the need to inhale a beta-2-agonist at the 2000 Sydney Games and ironically enough the notifications were predominantly requested in endurance sports. It was at this time that TUE's would be granted for beta - 2 agonists.

Per the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) website, the criteria for granting a TUE include an athlete experiencing significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance and the use of the substance would not produce significant enhancement of performance. In Torres case, was she really experiencing "significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance" 18 months ago? What about two, five, ten and twenty years ago? Given her unlimited financial resources, one would think that a proper diagnosis of asthma would have been detected years ago. It would appear that the use of the substance did factor into her Olympic Trials performance. Now it is up to WADA to determine if the substance was a "significant enhancement of performance."

I raised both these issues with an official at WADA, but never received a response. In addition, I inquired whether WADA periodically reviews TUE's and has the ability to revoke a TUE during the year.

Everyone wants to believe in the unbelievable - that's entertainment. However, we are discussing international athletic competition, not entertainment. The public is under the impression that what it witnesses is pure and genuine. Lately, the public's trust in the pure and genuine of sport has crumbled with the fall from grace of Marion Jones, Barry Bonds and Floyd Landis. Before we get sucked into NBC and mainstream media's hype machine, let's analyze the facts: Torres admits to using banned substances, but has in essence a "doctor's note" by having a TUE saying that she needs the medication. In order to qualify for a TUE, one needs to demonstrate that significant health problems would occur without it and that her use of it is not performance enhancing. This condition developed 18 months ago despite having the financial resources to see the best doctors and receive the best treatment throughout her life.

If that's all she's using then legally she's clean, but morally is another story.