Lara is back in Tucson all safe and sound.  The traveling from Singapore to Arizona, via Korea and Atlanta, Georgia took forever.  Crazy for Lara.  She’s glad that’s done!  On the day after Thanksgiving, Lara’s back to swim practice getting ready for one more swim meet for 2009.  University of Arizona and a few post-grads are headed to Austin, Texas on Wednesday, December 2 for the Texas Invitational at UT Austin.  Traditionally, Arizona goes to this meet all tapered and ready to swim fast for the team to get as many NCAA cuts as possible.  Since Lara is no longer on the university swim team, she can actually relax a little and swim for fun.  Just off this huge world tour, it will be interesting to see if swimming short course meters for 6 weeks affects her short course yards events.  I am always pleasantly surprised with what Lara comes up with.
And anyone who follows swimming knows all about the high tech suits that made their appearance shortly before the 2008 Olympics.  The suits have caused huge controversies and have been considered to artificially enhance a swimmer’s ability. Just check out how many world records have been broken in the last 18 months.  It’s insane.   So FINA has approved new rules for the suits effective January 2010.  The fabric of the suit must meet certain standards, so no rubber material or prosthetic type attachments.  Women may wear legs that stop above the knees and no zipper closures.  Men also may wear suits to above the knees, but nothing above the navel.
In essence, this will be the last meet that Lara will wear any of these suits.  Lara’s reaction?  She can’t wait until  the new rules to ban the high tech suits happens.  She wants a more fair playing field, because the suits help some body types more than others.  And Lara was making excellent progress with her times before the high tech suits invaded.  Not to mention that Nike got out of the competition suit area and that meant less sponsoring available for the up and coming professional swimmers.  It’s been a wild ride, now it will be interesting to see where swimming goes next.
And I am looking forward to being reunited with Lara in Austin so I can do what I do best, cheer her on and be the best swim mom that I know how to be.  Go Cats!  Go Lara!

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