[Wgnhqhlg]

Bringing it back on topic

What gets me about the swimsuits is that they will more than likely be banned in 2010. Then we are left with all these crazy world records that won't be broken until the swimsuit manufacturers come up with some more technological advances...

[Flirigor]

I think I saw something about this in The Hunt for Red October... Except that the Russians claimed the propulsion system was silent...

SHAME on you all.

Now dry's 2009 US Open Tailgate (pun intended) outfit won't be a surprise.

OMG... I'm dying here this morning.

[ValdisSeroff]

Bringing it back on topic

What gets me about the swimsuits is that they will more than likely be banned in 2010. Then we are left with all these crazy world records that won't be broken until the swimsuit manufacturers come up with some more technological advances...

I was thinking the same thing. I think that after a few years of not being even close to breaking those records, they well acknowledge them as proper of a "dark era" and annul them.

[Flirigor]

I was thinking the same thing. I think that after a few years of not being even close to breaking those records, they well acknowledge them as proper of a "dark era" and annul them.

I doubt that. We'll just get a new kind of controversial advancement that breaks records and the cycle repeats. Wasn't pool water oxygen or other gas content a big deal at some point, too?

Remember when those "unofficial" German steroid-enhanced world records seemed like they would never fall either?

Records always get broken.

[ValdisSeroff]

I doubt that. We'll just get a new kind of controversial advancement that breaks records and the cycle repeats. Wasn't pool water oxygen or other gas content a big deal at some point, too?

Remember when those "unofficial" German steroid-enhanced world records seemed like they would never fall either?

Records always get broken.

Just seems different. Were the German records made in great numbers as today's have? and by such a large margin?

This time it seems so huge, that it might take a very long time to cross the void.

[Flirigor]

Just seems different. Were the German records made in great numbers as today's have? and by such a large margin?

This time it seems so huge, that it might take a very long time to cross the void.

I wasn't really around at the time, but they stunk around for so long I kinda think they were by a quite sizable margin. They were simply "marked" as being unofficial after all the doping stuff came to light, probably as a means of getting them out of the way.

I bring it up since that sounds like what may happen here.

The records were eventually legitimately broken.... I think the longest lasting one was a relay swim. his was back when we watched broadcasted olympics and I don't know how long ago. I simply remember the announcer/reporter making a note of it at the time the record finally fell. An invalid record that was still observed due to lack of direct proof was a novel and intersting concept to me at the time, which is probably the only reason it stuck.

Does anyone else actually remember any of this? I was in middle school I think, so I really don't recall any detail whatsoever... my brief internet search pulled nothing as nobody keeps note of old broken records.

[Flirigor]

I can only find passing reference to it. East German women in the 1970s... I'm pretty sure the record was broken in the 90s.

I'd love it if someone actually knew or could find a real reference to it.

[pitoufsd]

Medals won by East German Women's Swimming in the Olympics:

1964 - 0
1968 - 6 (2 gold)
1972 - 5 (0 gold)
1976 - 18 (11 gold)
1980 - 26 medals (11 gold)
1984 - did not attend, boycott
1988 22 (10 gold)

http://swimming.about.com/od/swimmin...ontroversy.htm

[pitoufsd]

Shirley Babashoff was a US swimmer and a Michael Phelps of her day in many ways. Unfortunately she never won an individual gold medal at the Olympics because she was always up against the cheating East Germans. Instead of winning gold medals at the 1976 Olympics, she picked up a bunch of silvers, was branded a "loser" by the media, and instead of reaping the benefits of endorsements, eventually wound up being a mailman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Babashoff

[pitoufsd]

1976 Olympic Swimming Medal Chart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimmin...ummer_Olympics

1980 Olympic Swimming Medal Chart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimmin...ummer_Olympics

1988 Olympic Swimming Medal Chart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimmin...ummer_Olympics