Naturally the first thing that springs to mind is steroids, a needle in the arm.  Scary really.  This makes it an easy one to condemn.  Between needles, and esoteric babble about chemicals and hormones, it’s easy to scare the crap out of the general public.  And in this case, with good cause.  But “performance enhancing” doesn’t quite stop there.  A few months ago now there was a post on this very blog concerning the prosthetic legs of Oscar Pistorius, a sprinter from South Africa.  At the time I felt the need to comment on that blog.  But with a new issue regarding Speedo’s new racing suit it’s come to the front of my mind again lately.  Where is the ‘performance enhancing’ line?  Maybe on the other side of the ‘mine shaft gap?’

The post with which I had issue was contesting that it was demoralizing and disappointing (for humanity, I guess?) that Pistorius would not be allowed to compete at the regular Olympic Track and Field Trials.  It went so far as to condemn the IOC for their poor taste.  In my comment I made brief the reality of this situation.  The springs built into his new legs, made to mimic the movement of the normal human calf, are more efficient than a real leg.  In short they provide the same amount of push as a normal leg, without requiring the energy burning, lactic acid producing chemicals cycles that my calf would require to run a loop around the track. (Notably, the very reasons I don’t run)  As a hopeless tech geek I’m ecstatic that we’ve reached such a place in technology.  But in the end, in losing his legs, Pistorius has gained a performance enhancing edge.  He could potentially, while essentially not working as hard, beat a world-class, able bodied runner.  This is why he will not be allowed at trials.

So on the to the swimsuit.  A month ago publicly, and months before that in the upper echelon of the sport Speedo debuted the new LZR Racer suit.  Engineered with the help of NASA nerds it promised to be a revolution in aquadynamic technology.  It was.  21 world records have fallen to athletes equipped with this suit.  Not only is the suit (supposedly) more slippery than human skin, it has compression zones that help the athlete maintain proper form.  I know this reads like an ad for the suit, but these are all things worth noting.  To date the only requirement FINA (the world governing body of swimming) had for a suit was that it provided no unnatural buoyancy, and no increased ability to hold water with the hands or feet.  There have been bodysuits to date, I’ve worn them and there is no question that they have provided an edge, but this is the first with notable numbers, and such an instant impact (although these records could be chalked up to it being an Olympic year when athletes care more, but that’s another discussion.)  Especially in my events, the sprints, where races are decided by 100ths, and timed to the 1000th, a suit like this is a big deal.  So why the sales pitch?  Well, this is what the IOC is looking at right now and trying to decide if these suits will be allowed at the Olympic games.  Another problem is Speedo’s ownership of the technology.  Any athlete sponsored by another company cannot get their hands on this suit.  So the IOC is talking about either forcing no one to use the suit, or asking that companies allow their athletes to break contract for the games.  This suit is essentially like those prosthetic legs.  If you have it you have an instant, essentially purchased edge.  This is the definition of performance enhancing.  Except on this one I don’t mind.  It’s just the nature sports technology.  Sure, I wish I had it when I was in the game, but as much as I like to think maybe this would have given me the 10ths I needed to make the Olympic team, the truth is it would have been the ‘for granted’ status quo and I would have ended up where I did anyway.

It all comes down to this.  I have no problem with the suit.  It’s like comparing Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods, there will always be an element of technology and changing game conditions.  This is the nature of sport.  If we were to hold this back we’d still be wrestling in dirt…naked.  And maybe it’s just pretentious machismo, but for all the difference this suit might make, you adapt to the climate, if you want to win you get faster, if you can’t deal you get left behind.  With this suit, or without, Michael Phelps will still kick your ass.  And I firmly believe that if Tiger Woods were playing with a set of irons with wooden shafts he’d still have mastered his tools in such a way as to humiliate the competition.  Perhaps this is why sport endures.  For all the changes it still comes down to the heart of the person pushing.

Ugh, sorry, had a quick Rudy blackout there.  Anyway, the legs I cannot abide.  As much as I look forward to a future of bionic limbs, and the singularity allowing me to smoke all I want with no fear of reproach.  There is a difference between putting on a suit, or swinging a dimpled baseball bat, and replacing a part of the body.  This is essentially what steroids are doing on a chemical level.  On the macro scale Pistorius’s legs are the same.  Fundamentally altering biology with a ‘performance enhancing’ result.

No dice Oscar.  Good luck Mikey.

~theKerp