Swimwear Brand Set To Sue Fina

Swimwear brand blueseventy is set to take legal action against swimming’s world governing body, FINA claiming that bodysuit testing procedures are simply not water-tight.

Omitted from the current list of approved suits on the grounds of ‘air trapping’ blueseventy has an opportunity to resubmit suits for a second wave of testing, but claims it has not been informed how a test for trapped air will be conducted.

With a month of lost business and the World Championships rapidly approaching, blueseventy stated that it had no option other than to take legal action.

FINA rejected 10 high-tech racing suits and approved 199 others with 136 swimsuits to be modified in accordance with the ‘Dubai Charter’.

blueseventy stated it had submitted 11 models of suits for FINA approval, including tights and jammers. At this time, according to the firm, blueseventy suits are not listed on FINA’s website as approved models, including the models that had previously been submitted (in late 2007) and had received approval.

blueseventy has been given a deadline of 17th June to make modifications to the suit so that it no longer traps air, but the firm believes that the process around this is unclear since trapping air is not a measurable value and the subjective nature of this ‘testing’ is not black or while.

FINA was forced to restructure the regulations on swimsuit design following a year in which a massive number of world records were beaten with Speedo’s LZR Racer suit leading the way.