According to several dealers and industry professionals who have already been informed of the decision, USA Swimming will announce today that the Arena Carbon Pro swimsuit will be allowed up until June 3rd, the day after the Santa Clara Grand Prix, which should relieve some of the strain on the company and their retailers to satisfy demands of returns or exchanges in such a short period of time, with so many large meets happening. Originally, Tuesday was set to be the last day that they were to be allowed.
Update: USMS has released a statement reaffirming that the suits will not be allowed at their meet. Read more here.
USA Swimming Rules Committee Chair Dan McAllen confirmed that times swum in these now unapproved suits would not count for FINA Records or qualifying for FINA-sanctioned meets, though they could count for US Records or US qualifying. The rationale was simple and logical: there’s still a small handful of states who haven’t swum their high school State Championship meets yet, and there’s still two Grand Prixs left, so to put everyone on an even qualifying playing field, they would make a simple, clean cut at 11:59 PM Mountain Time on June 2nd: the end of the Santa Clara Grand Prix.
In addition to those around the country at various USA Swimming meets, including the Grand Prix meet in Charlotte this coming weekend, this means that those at the CIF Southern Section Championship meet will be able to swim “USA Swimming observed” even in the models of the Arena Carbon-Pro racing suits that have had FINA approval waived, the organization reported today.
This decision comes after Arena announced yesterday that the company had waived FINA approval on three models of its Carbon-Pro line of high performance suits after discovering a part of their manufacturing process that didn’t comply with FINA regulations. (Read more about that here.)
Given that Arena leader Tim McCool told us via phone that the issue didn’t impact performance or safety, this decision will be of great relief to many, including Southern California High School swimmers. Arena has already committed to having reps on deck at both the Charlotte Grand Prix and Masters Nationals this coming weekend, but as of yesterday were still working on a solution for meeting the demands of the California High School Championship meets, Southern Section, which begin Wednesday: a meet of substantial size, and where there is a potential for National Age Group Records to be broken.
The NFHS, who has more general suit guidelines and are not bound by USA Swimming or FINA rules, released a statement today to its State Association Executive Directors and Swimming and Diving Administrators that included the following:
The identified construction problem does not impact safety or the overall performance of the athlete to create a competitive advantage. Therefore, the NFHS has taken the position, due to the nature of the defect and not all suits being non-compliant, to allow the models listed above to be used in high school competition.
As noted above though, this makes all swims in this suit legal for the purposes of the NFHS, which does not include reporting to USA Swimming, meeting qualifying standards for USA Swimming meets, or breaking national USA Swimming records in observed swims.
Arena is the official apparel sponsor for USA swimming and the title sponsor of the Grand Prix Series.
Does anyone know where I can get my suit exchanged, I heard you could trade it in for the brand new Arena suit coming out.
Arenas sponsoring and putting up big cash for the Grand Prix Series which are all run in the US. USA swimming let it go until the last Grand Prix is over. USA swimming is not thinking about qualifying times and such, but rather all about the money.
Wow Tim…agree with the message but the delivery needs a little work. The inference is unavoidable that once again USA Swimming is the paid enabler of a sponsor, but hire yourself a company spokesman.
There’s a pretty good buck in the high end suits market, and it goes without saying that carbon coating is something savvy athletes or swimming federations could be doing in their kitchens anyways. I rather doubt this isn’t rampant already, so maybe an equally correct statement is Arena provided a concierge service for what was going on anyways coating suits with a non-permeable carbon element gloss.
Joke. USAS and the NFHS really dropped the ball. Expensive suit no longer legal but we will keep it legal for now because people spent a lot of money???? Cry me a river. You want to dance? Pay the band. But ARENA said there is no competitive advantage but they pulled it anyway…right – got some land in Florida I would like to sell you.
I have to say that as a manufacturer of suits, and one that makes them within the rules, this is disappointing to read and it’s hard not to point the finger at the sponsorship. Illegal is illegal, and no amount of shuffling of responsibility will change the fact that short cuts were taken in manufacturing to bring this to market.
If anyone is interested and wants to break some records, we have a stockpile of the suits from 2008. The fact that they were banned by FINA would normally mean that I wouldn’t recommend people swim in them, but maybe USA Swimming will allow them?
Tim Moxey – CEO blueseventy
Well said, Tim.
I think Jaked’s claim about their ’09 suit is warranted as well.
What about the birthday suit?
hahahahaha i think its legal for swimming
The don’t ask don’t tell of swimwear.
Note – those arenas are see thru under bright TV lights.
Or parents could go to Staples and buy $20 worth of #2 pencil leads. Then go home and melt them over a stove and take sticky tape to dip into the liquid melted carbon and apply the tape over a regular jammer to create a sheath, let it dry and take off the tape.
At the elemental level that is all Arena is doing and then charging you $350 for. It’s just high school chemistry.
If Mitt had been a swimmer as well as a budding entrepreneur at college he would have carboned those nylon speedos & we would have all been faster .
Plus we could have bought them next to our pens pencils & pads.
How many swimmers/parents looking for that edge are bustling to find one tonight? We now have proof the suit is beneficial. I’ve been a part of Southern California Swimming since I was 8 years old first as a swimmer and now as a coach and we all know the parent that will make sure Little Suzy/Johnny has one for CIF or for the RWB meet in the next cew weeks.