Ryan's take on the technology suits

Here's a picture of Ryan swimming the 200 IM prelims at Ultraswim this morning. Thanks to swimnetwork.com for posting it and to Caroline for telling me about it.

LzzyBee1 noted that FINA is meeting tomorrow in Switzerland to review the new technology suits from Jaked, Arena and other manufacturers. It is expected that FINA will rule on the eligibility of the new suits some time this month. Here's an article that discusses the situation: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jeip_aZ7agyMKn6q7VNgIeRlbJRw It's the same article where Ryan was asked about Ryosuke Irie breaking the WR in the 200 back.

Here's another recent quote from Ryan on the technology suits:

"My plan would be to ban all (high-tech) suits until 2012," Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte said, knowing full well that will never happen. "Let's all go back to old school. You can't wear a cap. You can't wear goggles. You have to grow a beard. There's no shaving down.

"Now that would be fun."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hIF0LOGnwVDo3ZV5dHZZsZ2zLvewD987KC900

Ryan was clearly joking, but I sense a little frustration with the situation. He elected to wear an old-fashioned speedo in all of his races at the Ultraswim whereas most of the other swimmers wore some type of "fast" suit.

There could be many reasons why Ryan did not wear a fast suit at Ultraswim: perhaps his coach did not want him to wear a fast suit during this part of his training or perhaps Ryan knew he was beat up and would not post best times anyway. Those are two reasons I could think of and there are probably more. I doubt Ryan's decision to wear the old fashioned Speedo at Ultraswim was based on some kind of stance against technology suits as the article above implies. Ryan embraced the Speedo LZR and I'm sure he will do whatever it takes to stay competitive including wearing a technology suit at big meets.

If Speedo does not come up with a suit before the World Championships to compete with the Jaked and Ultra Glide, will Speedo swimmers like Ryan and Michael Phelps be at a disadvantage? It's exactly the same situation non-Speedo swimmers faced last year before the Olympics. It will be interesting to see how this issue develops over the next several weeks.