The Speedo Image

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Watching the vidoe from 1972 (See Byron post above), it is interesting to see how much more brief the traditional Speedo suit has become. In the early 90's, (late 80's) the suits got real brief with the paper suit era. After that, male competitive swim attire made a big shift the other way. Funny that when Jammers and the more technical swim suits came along, the briefs appear to have not moved back toward the wider side seams.

On a side note, it is cool that more and more younger swimming guys are moving back to briefs( in my observation), at least for practice.

[Swimmboy]

Just because a picture shows up in an internet search for 'mark spitz speedos' doesn't mean it's Mark Spitz - in just the first four rows of pictures I saw one of Greg Louganis and one of Michael Phelps......

Gary Hall is the guy in a white USA tee-shirt - don't see a black 'tache' on him, though the video is rather poor....

About 'brief' suits reappearing - they never really left. Nearly every collegiate swimmer in the US practices daily in a brief Speedo (or other brand suit). During the regular season, most also compete in brief suits, saving the jammers for the big end-of-season meets where they strive for best times to try and qualify for the NCAA championships. I can't even count the number of college meets I have attended over the past 20 years as both a fan and a stroke/turn judge - and the brief suits are always the dominant suit until the final one or two meets.

[Byron]

post#17 + post#18 - quite agree

post#19 - stupidly missing the point again - I am quite aware of what Gary Hall looks like (father AND son if you wish to be pedantic) but is there any other swimmer, and particularly one with seven medals from 1972, with a black moustache?? If you want to believe the pic was photoshopped so be it.

Btw, if you want to enjoy MS's sense of humor look up what he said to Russian swim coaches about the advantages of his lip covering.

[Swimmboy]

"stupidly missing the point again" - please control your temper, Byron. We have had enough rude people on this board. Please take your nasty comments elsewhere.

[Byron]

...please insert a brain in your head to stop wasting space in this thread (which has been perfectly understandable without challenge from all other readers).

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Disagreements are fine, in fact are healthy, but I also agree that using the phrase of "stupidly missing..." is over the top. Drop the "stupidly" and the statement makes the same point without the added insult (for which we all should have zero tolerance). In the grand scheme of things, whether it is Spitz of Hall is really not all that important to create this level of angst.

The last response post is just uncalled for and rude.

[Byron]

A red herring of 1:20 was introduced in post #14 but I had not suggested 1:20 in the first place.
Another illogical challenge appeared in post#19 and thus stupidity does enter the equation whether you like the word or not.*

Take the "un" off "uncalled for" and refer to the attempt I HAD ALREADY MADE to bring the matter to a close in post#16 - and I agree with you that the argument is long past its sell-by date !

*Don't be such a drama queen - many such words of bold expression exist in the English vocabulary - and very much more enjoyable it is in the process
of their execution.
If such delicacy of temperament exists on this forum I hate to think what would result if I reproduced some of the freely expressed profanities to be easily found elsewhere on the 'net !