every governing body just wants to flex their muscles to show their worth with bs rules.

All those are only good through the end of the year though, correct?

Are you referencing a new ruling or the letter that was issue by FINA the first day or two of June? David K

Now they're accepting all of them? I thought they were getting ready to ban all of those suits? Why the change?

My take is that they were facing too many lawsuits about the testing process from companies whose suits weren't approved.

http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/6955

So one summer of free for all, and then a rollback for 2010. Be interesting to see what happens with the swimmers who had the biggest gains from Jaked and such after that.

The flip side of this all is that apparently if you want a tech suit to be used in Rome, you have to make it available to anyone who wants to use it in Rome. Run out of one size, and FINA could end up telling you that none of your suits can be worn at the meet. (and considering the size skew you get from the 5'2" little girls from places with developing swim programs to the 6'9" modern sprinters, that's a lot of stock to have on hand indeed)

I understand the legal ramifications and FLA Jill is no doubt correct that this is the reason behind the back flip. If I was a suit manufacturer, I had obeyed the letter of the law, and FINA threatened my business by suddenly and arbitrarily changing the rules with the consequence of supporting the biggest competitor (speedo), I would have been beyond furious.

That said, the world champs are going to be a bit of a circus. Is the exposure the companies are going to get between now and the end of the year really worth anything when their suits are going to be illegal from January 1 next year?

And what damage is being done to the sport? How many years will it be before another world record is broken?

I feel for all the swimmers who are sponsored by speedo. They may as well skip Rome and focus on next year.