AP Interview: Olympic great says swimsuit controversy making ‘mockery’ of sport

Janet Evans: Suits making the sport a ‘mockery’

ROME — When Janet Evans wakes up each morning, she heads to her computer to check out the latest from the world swimming championships.

She’s not happy with the news out of Rome.

A four-time Olympic gold medalist and still one of the sport’s most recognized figures, Evans said Wednesday the staggering amount of records that have fallen to swimmers wearing high-tech suits threatens to make “a mockery of the sport.” She also said there should be two sets of records.

“I’m concerned about the future of the sport and the athletes,” Evans told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her southern California home. “We need to turn back the clock and start fresh.”

She called on governing body FINA to act quickly to get rid of suits that aid buoyancy, a trend that began with the Speedo LZR Racer and has continued with attire produced by companies such as Arena and Jaked, which have suits that are 100 percent polyurethane.

“Basically, it’s technical doping,” said Evans, who swam in the era when East German women were her most formidable opponents, a group later exposed as being part of a massive, state-sponsored doping operation.

Evans said there should be some mention in the record book of marks set before buoyancy aiding suits were allowed in the sport, while not taking away from the times put up by swimmers in the current attire. Such a move would restore recognition for one of her records, a 19-year-old mark in the 800-meter freestyle that fell to Britain’s Rebecca Adlington in a LZR at the Beijing Olympics.

Evans, who also won a silver during her three trips to the Olympics, stressed that she’s not trying to put one of her own records back on the books. But she felt compelled to speak out as she heard of one record after another falling at the Foro Italico.

A staggering 22 world marks have already been set through the first four days of the meet, with four days of competition still remaining. Fifteen marks were set at the last worlds in 2007 and 25 records fell at the 2008 Olympics.

“It’s kind of hard to watch,” said Evans, who is expecting her second child in the next month. “I go online in the morning and I laugh. I actually find myself laughing. It’s so out of control.”

Evans is especially sensitive to records set by means other than a swimmer’s natural ability and training because of what she went through with the East Germans.

“It’s different but similar,” she said. “I always believe the East German women were doing what they were trained to do. I’m not going to say it was the right thing, but they worked hard and did their best. They were just pawns of the state. You can’t necessarily cut them out of the record book. That never made sense to me. I thought those women still needed a little credit.”

Likewise, Evans doesn’t want to diminish the accomplishments of a swimmer such as Germany’s Paul Biedermann, who beat Ian Thorpe’s seven-year-old world record in the 400 freestyle and knocked off Michael Phelps in the 200 freestyle with another record swim — performances that have largely been credited to his Arena suit.

“We need to kind of start over again,” Evans said. “But I don’t think we need to take away from what the athletes have done now. They’re out there racing and swimming and doing the best they can. It’s similar to me and the East Germans.”

Evans reserved her harshest comments for FINA, saying it should put the swimmers’ interests first and quit catering to swimsuit companies that are mainly concerned with improving their share of the marketplace. She just recently completed a stint with the organization as chair of the athletes commission and said many of her suggestions “fell on deaf ears.”

“Swimming should be about an athlete’s natural abilities and how they train, how they move in the water,” she said. “I’m all for technological advances in swimming with faster pools and better lane lines. But I’m not for things that aid an athletes’ abilities and make a mockery of the sport.”

Evans dismissed claims by swimsuit companies that new rules being imposed by FINA will hurt those firms that pump so much money into the sport. Starting sometime in 2010, males will be restricted to suits that go from the waist to the knees (known as “jammers”); female versions can go from the shoulders to the knees.

“The swimsuit companies did OK before the LZR suits came around,” Evans said. “They’ll figure it out. They have been very successful companies. That doesn’t hold a lot of weight with me.”

The main thing is to act quickly, she said, criticizing FINA’s timeline for putting the new rules in place — perhaps as late as May 2010.

“We can all talk about it ad nauseam,” Evans said. “But FINA needs to draw a line in the sand and listen to the athletes’ voices, what they need and want.

“They’re making a mockery of the sport. Changes need to be made.”