"... and it was 'one size fits all.' But those swim caps left out large groups of swimmers, adding to structural inequities that often keep people of color out of the pool. Many swimmers have celebrated recent advances in swim cap technology. Several brands... have introduced options with more flexible material that vary in size, accommodating swimmers with hair that is larger and more textured than their White competitors’... [T]he International Swimming Federation... said the design does not fit 'the natural form of the head.' To the best of their knowledge, they added, 'the athletes competing at the international events never used, neither require … caps of such size and configuration.'"
I expect this decision to be reversed. It's not as though the enlarged crown of these hats gives the swimmer an advantage. It must be a disadvantage, increasing drag.
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Tim writes:
"I would actually need to see studies on the specific configuration they are looking for. If they have made caps more streamlined I suspect there could be a competitive advantage. Look at a modern nuclear sub for the best underwater streamlining we have come up with so far. The standard of "no evidence it does not affect" is wrong. The standard is "we have tested and have evidence it has no effect on performance" is what you are looking for. Remember the fiasco when they allowed the better material for swimwear, only to find out it did indeed have an effect on performance."
My answer:
There's a photo at the link. There's a tight band around the head but instead of all-over tightness, there's more of a loose bubble around the top. I presumed as I wrote this post that the larger size and bagginess would cause more drag.
I do think the idea here is to encourage young black girls to participate in swimming, not so much specifically for the black women who do compete at the Olympic level. If you'd gotten that far, would you really be wearing an extra large hairstyle? You're in the pool constantly, and no swim cap keeps your hair from getting wet. You have constant hair maintenance problems. I would think anyone swimming in the Olympics would have opted for a short, low-maintenance hairdo.
But there's still the issue of messaging — both from the Olympics authorities and at the Olympics authorities — and the real friction here is not cap against the water but in the world of speech and ideas.
After writing the previous comment, I read this from Wilbur, which was written before I put my comment up:
"Nobody asked me, but if I was a competitive swimmer at the Olympic level I think I would do to my hair whatever would help me motor through the water more efficiently. That would include cutting my hair as short as necessary. An Olympic-level athlete spends thousands of grueling hours preparing for the competitive trials and then - hopefully - the Olympics. If your hair style is more important to you than that, you're not going to succeed."
I'd say:
I would too, but there's a lot of sensitivity around hair and the question is what will the Olympics allow and how that makes people feel. They might as well allow this caps, even though they're not a good choice if you want to win.
Birches writes:
"I do not expect the decision to be reversed because no Olympic caliber competitive swimmer needs that type of swim cap, it's true. If someone is that competitive in swim, they will make their hair accommodate the swim cap, not find a bigger swim cap. It's the same reason why male competitive swimmers don't have long hair and why most female swimmers keep their hair at shoulder length at the longest.
"I would imagine these swim caps will be great for younger girl swimmers just starting out. They'll be very useful. I suspect the reason their creator is so angry is not for systemic racism but because now she cannot pay an Olympian to wear one for advertising."
Bob Boyd writes:
"Joe kept Corn Pop out of the pool because of his hair. And Corn Pop didn't appreciate it none too much either.
"Joe was just a young life guard struggling to do his job in a racist system that didn't provide him the tools he needed to do that job equitably. Joe was lucky. How many life guards weren't so lucky? We may never know."
John B writes:
"Yes, and as Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." But neither can a nation that hates itself.
"I don't know when this nation will crack apart, but the strain of quasi-intellectual thought that constantly attacks the nation's founding principles, if widely adopted, will be the end of this American experiment.
"This is sad, as, despite all of America's faults, it is the nation where the most people have a chance to live free. This American experiment, if allowed to die, will not soon be replicated and all of humanity will be worse off."
MadisonMan writes:
"I disagree that the message is You don't belong. Anyone with a tremendous amount of head hair will hear the message: You can't excel in swimming. And this has nothing to do with race or gender. On one of my kid's swim teams had a member who would not cut his hair as an homage to his Native American ancestry. This kid stuck out as a result (but did okay time-wise).
"Competitive swimming is all about doing better next time. You are in a competition with yourself. If a person with too much hair has dreams of being elite, at some point they decide: What's more important, my times, or my non-streamlined hair?"
Fubar N Wass raises an issue I hadn't noticed:
Rules for breaststroke:
"SW 7.4 During each complete cycle, some part of the swimmer's head must break the surface of the water. The head must break the surface of the water before the hands turn inward at the widest part of the second stroke. All movements of the legs shall be simultaneous and on the same horizontal plane without alternating movement."
New caps with bubble of air are nice work-around for this rule, since the bubble will make head appear to be above water even when head is down.
If breaststrokers favor this new cap and freestylers and backstrokers do not, it will be a clue that swimmers have figured this out and want the edge.
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