Swimming against technology's tide?
Foro Italico, Italy
My girlfriend often gets upset at how hairy my chest is these days.
She finds it hilarious that I have a 'bow tie', which is apparently chest hair that encroaches onto the neck and resembles something only worn once every blue moon. I've tried not to let on, but in fashion there is hair on the inside of my forearms, too.
It's amazing how much you have to sacrifice for a national swimming team and that's what a decade of shaving down does for you.
Before scientists got involved in developing swimsuits, international swimmers used to shave their bodies in order to cut down drag.
I was never sure about the physical advantages, but the other benefit is by shaving you take off the top layer of skin and when you dive in you feel super fast!
There's not much talk about razors and shaving creams these days - it's all about . Hydrafoils, LZRs, Jaked 01s, Blueseventy and Arena X-glides to name but a few. It's enough to make your head spin.
There are as many opinions as there are suits, but the main cry from the swimmers is they want consistency. I can understand their frustration - after all, a level playing field is the essence of sport.
Great Britain's double Olympic champion is sticking with the suit she wore at the Olympics for the current World Championships in Rome.
"I've already decided I'm not one of the swimmers who's trying different suits out and having to find out which one is best for them," she said. "I've just stuck with one and put the rest behind. The suit's not going to swim by itself, you've got to put a good swimmer in it."
Britta Steffen, winner of the said after breaking the world record last month: "You feel no pain. Under normal circumstances, this suit should be forbidden and I expect by 2010 it will be."
I'm undecided on the debate. The other perspective is there has never been such an exciting time in the sport, with 135 world records in 18 months, making it all the more exciting to watch.
There was never an issue going from wool to cotton to nylon to hybrid textile suits. Why get upset at poor polyurethane (the culprit material in this whole process)?
Ok they are expensive at Β£200-300 a piece, but let's ban them for all age group competitors like they have done in Australia.
Whatever your opinion, one thing is for sure, we will see a the likes of which we have never seen before.
Swimming's world governing body announced on Friday that it has decided to , but not until 2010. Let's hope that its action will return a degree of certainty to the sport.
I'm just glad to be out here in Rome and not having to do the four-hour shaving ritual!
Ps - check out in the World Championships!
I'm Steve Parry. I won an Olympic bronze medal in Athens and I'll be aiming to give you an insight into the world of swimming as well as all the other Olympic sports.
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