I think that USAT could adopt the ITU Age Group rules for all competitors, and it would be an improvement over what we currently have.  At Long Course Worlds, I think that the ruling was 23C even for elites, which was a bit too warm for a 3k swim.  The age group rules for ITU are:
 
1500m swim - wetsuits prohibited above 22C (71.6F)
1501m - 3000m swim - wetsuits prohibited above 23C (73.4F)
3001m - 4000m swim - wetsuits prohibited above 24C (75.2F)
 
Adopting these standards would take away the confusion of different standards for pros and age groupers and it would be graduated for distances.
-Brandon Marsh

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Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:32:35 +0000
From: e-litebeat@yahoogroups.com
To: e-litebeat@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [e-litebeat] Digest Number 307

E-lite Beat (USAT Pros)

Messages In This Digest (1 Message)

1a.

Re: WTC Wetsuit Rules From: karen/mike

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1a.

Re: WTC Wetsuit Rules

Posted by: "karen/mike" mkandks@comcast.net   mkandks

Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:06 am (PST)

For the shorter races the ITU rule seems to be best but the problem
lies in the longer distance races when there is a mass start--the age
groupers are allowed to wear wetsuits upt to 78-degrees so there are
many more of them that can keep up with the professionals which
makes it a much more crowded, risky, frustrating swim. And then
those same age groupers are there at the beginning of the bike making
pack-riding more prevalent. Perhaps we could at the very least have
the lower temp in effect whenever the pros have a separate wave
(which I personally wish would be always). There is still the pesky
issue of age groupers comparing their times to the pros when they
operated under different rules, but most of us could live with that.
We should push for separate waves whenever possible as well.

The other question is whether the ITU temp is appropriate for the
longer distances. Swimming 1500 meters during an Olympic distance
race at that temp is quite different from swimming 2.4 miles during
an Ironman (the pace is slower so you don't generate as much body
heat and you tend to lose more heat over the longer course of the
swim). I would think a slight graduated temp might be reasonable (72-
degrees?) but I doubt we will get everyone to agree on what that is.
I agree that 78 degrees is way too warm for wetsuits for professionals.

Karen Smyers

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