British Olympian calls for world swimming records to be struck down; German record holder wouldn't mind an asterisk or two

Mark Foster, Brit sprint specialist, is ANOTHER voice calling for FINA to rollback the record book to when the suits didn't matter nearly as much:

Rip up records: Swimming is a shambles right now, says Foster

Mark Foster, whose international swimming career spanned 20 years, has called for the blizzard of world records in hi-tech swimsuits to be struck from the record books.

'The records have to go back to the end of 2007,' he said. 'It used to be big news every time somebody broke a world record, now every time somebody steps into a pool they break one. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that it's detrimental to the sport.'

[As I noted, I think it would be chaotic to go back that far. The end of the Beijing Olympics is a decent benchmark, as I said in an earlier post.]

By the way, many ladies think Foster is yummy. A few guys (I spelled that right, I think) think so too.




The most notable record-breaker so far, Paul Biedermann, wouldn't mind a special "mark" by his records:

Germany's Paul Biedermann, who beat Phelps in that race, is one of the swimmers who has come under the most scrutiny here, having made massive improvements to his times and taken not only Phelps's world record in the 200m freestyle but that of Ian Thorpe in the 400m freestyle.

Biedermann has accepted it would be a good thing if the governing body, FINA, put some sort of indicator in the record books. 'I don't have a problem with having my world records being marked,' he said. For Foster, though, that would not be enough and he is fiercely critical of the governing body for letting things get out of hand.

Roll back the record book. It's nearly as meaningless right now as it was for the women when the East German steroid-amplified uberFrauen were competing.