The Impact of Technology and Rule Changes on Elite Swimming Performances

Todd A. McFall (), Amanda L. Griffith and Kurt W. Rotthoff
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Todd A. McFall: Wake Forest University
Amanda L. Griffith: Wake Forest University
Kurt W. Rotthoff: Seton Hall University

Chapter Chapter 9 in The Economics of Aquatic Sports, 2020, pp 77-92 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract We use the annual ranking of the top 100 performers in the world that the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) publishes to study the impact the LZR Racer swimsuit and the deregulation of the use of dolphin kicking in breaststroke had on swimming performances. The swimsuit innovation, which was legal to use in 2008 and 2009, impacted performances across the sport such that improvement in the years swimmers could use any variation of the suit was significantly larger than in the years before it was created and after it was banned. The change in rules dictating legal motions swimmers could use while competing in breaststroke events, which occurred in 2015, caused improvement in breaststroke races to be significantly bigger than in races that involve the other strokes. We close by discussing the importance of FINA’s decisions on regulating technology and monitoring innovation within the sport.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-52340-4_9

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