Ban on polyurethane bodysuits leaves lingering questions

The swimsuit controversy threatening to overtake swimming officially came to a close at the end of 2009.

This doesn’t mean, however, there won’t be a ripple effect in 2010 and beyond.

With a return to the textile suit, and a recently imposed ban on high-tech polyurethane bodysuits, there are several remaining questions.

World records almost lost their prestige during the frenzy of the last two years, so, how hard will it be to break one now?

“I think it’ll be interesting to see which record goes down first,” said swim star Michael Phelps. “I have no idea. I know there are going to be a lot of records that are going to be really hard to get in a jammer [a waist-to-knee suit].”

Phelps, who won eight Olympic gold medals at Beijing in 2008 and has 14 gold in all, was speaking in Long Beach at the Belmont Plaza pool on Friday.

He is in town for USA Swimming’s Grand Prix meet, a-four day event, and other Olympians in the field include world-record holder Rebecca Soni, Katie Hoff, Matt Grevers and breaststroker Kosuke Kitajima of Japan, who is training with Dave Salo at USC. Additionally, world-record holder Jessica Hardy will be competing in Long Beach.

The short-course meet is in yards, not meters, and Phelps will be swimming in five events, the 500 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke, the 400 individual medley, the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke.

Finals today and Sunday start at 5 p.m., and Monday’s finals begin an hour earlier. The the 100s for Phelps are on Monday, the 500 freestyle is Saturday and the 400 IM is Sunday.

His coach, Bob Bowman, was on hand Friday on the pool deck, and Bowman does think there should be distinction in the record book.

Not all records should be created equal.

“I don’t think the other records should be taken away, but I just think there should be a separate list -- of the textile records and the non-textile records,” he said.

Apparently FINA, the international ruling body of swimming, is considering such a move. Phelps wasn’t quite so sure, saying: “I think you can get different answers from different people. I don’t think it matters. Records are always made to be broken whether it’s with the suit or without a [high-tech] suit. In the ‘70s or in the 2000s.

“Records are records. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to swim the fastest.”

Phelps is all about preparation, and, essentially, this year is putting down his foundation for the 2012 Olympics in London.

“It was tough getting back into things,” he said. “After a world championship year, I don’t know if it’s an easier year or more relaxed year. This year is the big year to sort of prepare yourself for the next two years. Those are the two most important years that are coming up for me.

” . . . Getting through this year and seeing where we end this year and seeing things we need to change between now and the world championships.”

This won’t be the last time Phelps will be swimming in Southern California in 2010. The summer nationals are in Irvine in July, followed by an important international meet the next month, the Pan Pacifics.

For now, Bowman and Phelps are keeping it low-key.

“He’s been training better than he did before our meet in December, which is better than he did before the meets in November,” Bowman said. “So I just want to see another step. That’s basically it.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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