A few hours ago, the Arena Water Instinct page on Facebook posted photos from their global print campaign featuring a “Dream Team” of 11 top swimming stars. This is the first time an international line-up has appeared in the same Arena ad campaign, and it is quite the diverse group!

From the press release, the “dream team” includes:

“Brazilian Cesar Cielo, … German Paul Biedermann, … Frenchman Alain Bernard, … Americans Aaron Peirsol, … Rebecca Soni, … and Eric Shanteau, … the Dane Lotte Friis, … Swede Therese Alshammar, … British sprinter Francesca Halsall, … Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, … and the Serb Milorad Cavic” (source).

I saw this over at Universal Sports, it looks like FINA’s swimwear control amendments have already claimed their first major victim. Sweden’s Therese Alshammar broke her own world record in the 50 meter Fly at the Australian Swimming Championships on Tuesday. However, Alshammar was wearing a regular training suit under her speedsuit, effectively disqualifying her from the race.

Apparently it was quite obvious she was wearing two suits, not that she was trying to cheat and hide the fact, because Alshammar said she wasn’t sure if the FINA rules had come into effect yet. Unfortunately for her, the Dubai Charter on FINA’s Requirements for Swimwear Approval makes it clear that the updates were effective immediately upon release.

With all the attention FINA regulations are getting, I’m surprised Therese and her coach could miss something as blunt as the multiple suit rule. Things are still sort of up in the air with buoyancy testing, and I don’t think swimmers can correctly measure the suit’s thickness for themselves. But “the swimmer can only wear one swimsuit” is pretty cut and dry.

So if you weren’t paying attention, please read up on the FINA regulations before you too are denied a world record!