Do we by the same token discount Bolt's records because he had better shoes than those who came before?

Bolt's shoes are not this much better, and I also think the discontinuity of change is quite important. It's one thing to be unable to compare Beckham to Best; quite another?

$100 bucks a year for some budgie smugglers, goggles and a razor became $500 per race.

I think you're discounting the improvements in performance that have come with better use of cameras and computer modelling in swimming, which has allowed swimmers to train every single part of their stroke to offer least drag and most performance

You're right I am ignoring the extra science (though I?

Is comparison important?

Yeah, I think so. It's a sign that everyone's playing the same sport.

And if the only way you can become a world record holder is by wearing a special suit, do you really deserve it?

It's a sign that everyone's playing the same sport.

I suppose I'm in a pro-technology mood today because I've been reading about the restrictions that the UCI?

In lots of technology driven sports restrictive rules can actually lead to increased cost (to eek out the last fraction). But without them the race is won by the?

Unfortunately, it's held back the development of better bikes considerably

But cycling isn't about bikes; it's about people.

Cycling has been arbitrarily anti-technology since the invention of the internal combustion engine.

I'd be interested to know the particular restrictions in cycling. Eg: do they count out recumbent cycles or other unusual configurations.

Yes, explicitly. UCI-legal cycles must conform to a number of criteria, among which is that they must be upright bicycles with a diamond frame configuration. The rules are also?

Modern competitive cycling is insanely technological, whether offroad or on. Yes, of course it's about the people, but technology plays at least as much of a role as it does in most sport.

Yeah, of course. But the point of cycling is that some technologies aren't allowed; you can exploit?

But the point of cycling is that some technologies aren't allowed; you can exploit nutrition to the hilt, but you can't turn up with an engine.

No. That isn't the point of cycling. The point of cycling is that you turn up with a bike, you get on that bike,?

The constraints make the race interesting,?

In the end it could be that the only people to win the in the swimsuit wars were the perverts.

So, all PA readers then? But really, if they're hiding more skin, there's less to perve at. Damn you, new suits!

the perception among sports followers (not necessarily swimming followers) when record-holders emerge from nowhere and are replaced only months later by similarly 'unknown' swimmers – the suits have enabled this scenario.

this is i don't get. if everyone is using the suits, how come it affects some people more than?

But really, if they're hiding more skin, there's less to perve at. Damn you, new suits!

Oh, but now there is the tantalising prospect of the inevitable rips, and where they 're going to come from, as our friend Hadyn helpfully documented. I might take just take up watching swimming,?

this is i don't get. if everyone is using the suits,

They aren't

Things in swimming that effect everyone's performance: faster pools, better timing equipment, high-speed high-definition cameras. None of these are issues because they are changes to the environment in which the sport is run (or swum).

To train?

I think that maintains my point that cycling isn't a sport about going fast, it is a sport about going fast according to rules.

The constraints make the race interesting, and that's why I said (slightly imprecisely) that they're the point of cycling.

Indeed, and I agree with you on?

No. That isn't the point of cycling. The point of cycling is that you turn up with a bike, you get on that bike, and then you race that bike from point A to point B.

Oh you poor innocent boy. If only it were so.

this is i don't?

Maybe Phelps was just warming up. He has now won gold in a world record time.

After taking off his full body suit and swimming in a waist down version.

Nothing for it....I mean they should wear nothing. Make the sport damn more interesting.

One interesting consequence of mandating nudity for competitive swimming is that you'd have to contend with the drag factor from the parts that are normally enclosed by the trunks. Possibly not so much of a problem?

Was it butterfly? There's a one style he does in the short suit so he gets better movement from his arms

He warmed up in a full suit, but complained that it didn't feel like it fit him correctly (around the shoulders). So he swapped it for the half suit?

In the paralympics many sprinters with prosthetic limbs can run faster than they could before they got prosthetic limbs. Should they be able to compete against "normal olympians" or does having no feet?