Was FINA right to ban high-tech and full-body swimsuits in order to prevent the competition being about the equipment?

[KRyma1998]

FINA banned high tech swimwear from competitive swimming in 2009, and said that swimwear couldn't cover the arms or lower legs, and that men had to swim topless in just shorts.

Personally, I agree with all these rules. This was because swimsuits were increasingly covering the whole body and made of performance enhancing synthetic materials, so the competition was becoming less about the swimming.

On the other hand, maybe the suits were just helping the athletes perform at their best, and it added an interesting element to the game. What do you think?

(The rules for reference: "For pool swimming competitions swimsuits for men shall not extend above the navel nor below the knee, and for women, shall not cover the neck, nor extend past the shoulder, nor below the knee. All swimsuits shall be made from textile materials.")

Yes, swimmers should be in textile materials, with uncovered lower legs and arms and (for men) shirtless

No, high tech full body suits should be allowed

[Guy13]

I thought everyone was swimming naked now and all areas shaved. Oh WAIT... that was my 15 minutes of CNN. I know I got that wrong now.

[Anonymous]

Yes I agree it's better for the athletes to compete in ordinary suits, so the competition is about their skill alone. the more traditional suits look better and are fairer.

[Varanus]

Doesn't matter which they go with as long as everyone is wearing equivalent gear.

[KRyma1998]

I think that is a good point. That argument goes in favour of more traditional suits if high-tech suits can only be accessed by swimmers with more sponsorship / from richer countries (though of course that doesn't have to be the case)

[SnowedIn]

I like the no full body suits. It needs to be about what the body (and mind) can do by themselves.

[Anonymous]

I agree no to the high-tech suits, though in the interests of equality men should be able to cover up as much as women

[KRyma1998]

I get what you're saying, but it's a trade-off between modesty and not letting the suit affect the swimming, so I feel like, considering anatomy and what is traditional in swimming, requiring male swimmers to swim shirtless is sensible and not against equality in any important sense.

[andreasderjuengere]

That's half hearted.

Why not banning swimwear entirely?

[loveslongnails]

If the suits worked, why wouldn't every swimmer wear one? Seems like much ado about nothing.