FINA Ban (2024)

Michael Porter has linked innovation to‘economic growth,productivity growth and economic prosperity& anInternational Competitive Advantage of nations, regions and firms’ (Porter, 1990). These are all reasons why governments and associated bodies encourage innovations to occur. The Speedo LZR Racer also met all expectations on customer satisfaction, customer acceptance, quality guidelines and product performance levels (Tokarski, 2011). However, what happens when a company does everything right but their external environment still works against the innovation? Does the innovation necessarily have to become a failure?

Following years of controversy around the performance enhancement of racing suits, FINA in 2008 implemented a ban on their production . Although the ban did not come into effect until January 2010, new laws deemed the Speedo LZR an illegal and therefore obsolete product. This section will analyse FINA as a governing body and the effects it had on not only the LZR, but Speedo as a company.

Furthermore, FINA regulations strictly stipulate that “No swimmer shall be permitted to use or wear any device that may aid his speed, buoyancy or endurance during a competition.”(FINA, 2013)

Given their status and dominance, FINA is the governing body that issues regulations that all aquatic sports must adhere to. As a result,Speedo and the LZR racerfound themselves to be harshly affected by their updated regulations following the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The president of FINA commented on live television that “ FINA wishes to recall the main and core principle that swimming is a sport essentially based on the physical performance of the athlete’’ (BBC Sport, 2009)

In relation to an update of their main third objective, FINA released the following statement:

‘’From June 1, 2010 Open Water swimwear for both men and women shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor shall extend below the ankle. All Open Water swimsuits shall comply with the FINA Criteria for Materials and Approval Procedures.’’ (FINA, 2011).

Many of the swimsuits that were used in competitive races from 2008/09 were acknowledge to ‘add buoyancy, reduce surface drag or compress a swimmer’s body, even when tired, into a streamlined and efficient position.’ (McDonald, 2009). Consequentially, many interpreted this to add an unfair advantage to those swimmers using the swimsuit over those that were not.

‘Of the 25 world records shattered at the2008 Beijing Olympics, 23 were bested by competitors wearing LZR Racers. All of the male gold medalists wore the suit. At the World Aquatics Championships in Rome the next year, 43 recordswere broken, all of them by competitors wearing the tech suits, leading some in the sport to derisively refer to the event as the “Plastic Games.”’ (Pallardy, 2012)

FINA tested 348 swimsuits, the federation approved 202 and rejected 10 models outrights. They also listed that 136 models needed modifications in 30 days in order to be approved by the federation. This also led to the demolition of 255 world records resulting from the use of such ‘technology suits' over a 2 year period. (McDonald, 2009). FINA issued new regulations in March 2009 relating to swimwear that included:

• Should not cover the neck
• Must not extend past shoulders and ankles
• Suit’s thickness and buoyancy adjusted

(Meyer, 2013)

15 versions of the Speedo LZR racer have since been approved by FINA, but the vast majority failed testing. Consequentially the company in jeopardy. After investing millions of dollars into the research and development of their most successful innovation in history, they also found themselves to add excess stock of swimsuits that were illegal and worth thousands of dollars. FINA banned most LZR models that covered the whole body but allowed those that covered part of the leg to be used in racing.

Although Speedo has since used this surplus stock following the ban at colleges by donating swimsuits to students in order to create a new fashion line, they have also bounced back from this ban by introducing the LZR Racer Elite and the LZR Racer Pro. Our next sectionSuccess to Failurewill discuss the market failure process in further detail, adding to how Speedo bounced back.