SwimNews.com has been running a series all week on the arguments around the new super duper high tech full body swimsuits that the swimmers were wearing at the Beijing Olympics. Up to now, the idea of swimsuits has been to be as cover only what needs to be covered.

This is what passes for controversy in the world of swimming (on my old team the big issues were who cut off who at practice and whether the president of the team insulted the head coach or the coach dissed the president). No wonder we're a "minor sport." but I digress.

Anyway, SwimNews editorialized yesterday that swimming should "return to skin," i.e., go back to speedos -- which is clearly correct (because I agree with it).

The argument about the new suits is that they go beyond just reducing drag and actually give a boost to swimmers. They're also insanely expensive -- $550 versus $20 for a standard speedo (no wonder the swimsuit makers like them -- and I will never buy one). Now I'm enough of a purist (and cheap) that I think swimming should be based entirely on the athlete's technique, training and conditioning. Personally, I don't want to see swimming go the way of, say, cycling and become a test of technology.

But I'm mostly just tired of this argument. Not many swimmers are going to wear those high tech suits at the Masters meets I compete in -- they're just too expensive (and they're only for three or four races). So it's really a moot point for us.

But while I'm on the subject of swimsuits, I'm kind of amazed sometimes that even people on the US Masters Swimming Forum seem squeamish about speedos. These are all supposedly serious, even competitive swimmers. I have no other comment to make -- I'm just amazed.