Speed: can you afford it?

A weird sort of escalation is occurring, perhaps inevitably, in swimming pools across the country. We all remember how enthralling the Beijing Water Cube was this summer, with Michael Phelps and company breaking world records seemingly every other minute. Almost equally compelling were the stories swirling around the innovative, NASA-esque swimsuit technology, which by all accounts played a major role in the unprecedented Olympic race times.

Now, as reported on by the Washington Post, the suits are becoming a “virtual necessity” among serious young swimmers, and high schools across the country are struggling to supply the expensive (and non-durable) swimwear. The suits are banned at most events featuring athletes under 12 years old, but high schools have not taken collective action against them as of yet, and competition has become more stratified. More affluent schools across the country have benefitted from the new technology, while the $500+ cost per suit has precluded many less fortunate institutions from providing them to their swimmers.

This type of disparity between high school athletic department budgets is not a new phenomenon, and there should be no attempt to ‘fix’ the separation. Funding successful high school sports programs always requires money, whether it’s purchasing the most advanced basketball shoe or a functional batting cage, and the mythical utopia of a ‘level playing field’ in high school sports can never be achieved. However, in the case of these swim suits, rarely has a piece of equipment so directly affected athletic performance. If it is indeed possible to ‘purchase’ an extra half-second of speed in the water, does this not adversely effect those who can’t afford it? Certainly it does, and it’s an unfortunate consequence of an otherwise quite impressive innovation.

The bottom line, though, is that we as human beings always strive for the next great achievement, to create the most efficient piece of equipment, to improve ourselves in every way possible This swim suit is the most recent manifestation of that. Such improvements are largly wonderful, and have throughout history been subject to the issues of inequality we’re seeing today. We would all be better off without the knee-jerk backlash against the technology, which amounts to little more than reactive jealousy. However, we’re equally blind if we do not concede that such an advance leaves many in the sport behind.