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SWIMMING

Group rules against Swedish swimmer on ‘sexist’ swimsuit ban

Swimming’s international governing body has commented on new swimsuit rules labeled “sexist” by Swedish swimmer Therese Alshammar.

Published: 19 March 2009 08:51 CET

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) on Thursday weighed in on the row over hi-tech swimsuits, declaring swimmers cannot wear anything at all under their costume to protect their modesty.

The move comes after Alshammar became the first swimmer to be stripped of a world record under new rules because she wore two swimsuits when she bettered her existing world mark in the 50 metre butterfly in Sydney.

Alshammar slammed the decision, declaring the rules sexist and saying she thought she was allowed to wear a “modesty suit” under her skin-tight racing gear.

Officials at the Australian Swimming Championships had said women were allowed to wear bikini bottoms for modesty purposes but not a full suit because it may provide extra buoyancy in the pool.

However, Swimming Australia spokesman Ian Hanson said the sport’s governing body, FINA, had contacted the organization to say swimmers were not permitted to wear anything under the main swimsuit.

He said the Australian rules allowing modesty briefs would still stand at the national titles, which are currently under way in Sydney, but competitors would be warned any world records they set would not stand if they used them.

“Unfortunately, we can’t change the rules mid-meet,” Hanson told AFP.

He said the Swimming Australia board would amend its laws to comply with the FINA ruling at the first opportunity after the national titles.

FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told specialist website swimnews.com that his organization had adopted a clear position.

“That means that nothing must be worn underneath,” he said. “One suit only. That’s it.”

FINA this month adopted new rules on new hi-tech swimsuits, the wearing of which led to 105 world records being set in 2008 over long-course and short-course distances.

The measures were introduced after claims that the revolutionary suits provide an unfair advantage and that technology was taking over from sheer individual talent.

Under the new rules, swimsuits cannot cover the neck and cannot extend past the shoulders or ankles.

They must also be a maximum of one millimetre thick and cannot be custom-made for or adapted by individual swimmers.

SPORT

The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation

The Paralympics is full of stories of disabled athletes overcoming the odds to achieve sporting greatness but few bear the trauma of Jean-Baptiste Alaize.

Published: 28 August 2020 10:06 CEST
The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation
Jean-Baptiste Alaize training in Antibes. All photos: AFP

The 29-year-old French sprinter and long-jumper, who features in Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix released on Wednesday, was just three years old when he lost his right leg.

Not by accident or illness but by the brutal hack of a machete.

A child caught up in the civil war in Burundi in October 1994, he watched as his mother was beheaded.

“For years, every time I closed my eyes, I had flashes. I saw my mother being executed in front of me,” he tells AFP after a training session in Antibes, running his finger across his throat.

The killers left the Tutsi boy for dead. Alaize carries a large scar on his back but he was also slashed across the neck, right arm and right leg by his Hutu neighbours.

He woke up in hospital several days later, alive but missing the lower part of his right leg which had had to be amputated.

“With my mother, we ran, we ran, but we didn't manage to run far,” he says. “We were executed 40 metres from the house.”

A decade later, after coming to France in 1998 and being adopted by a French family, he joined the athletics club in Drôme.

Fitted with a prosthetic limb, he discovered that running gave him his first night without a nightmare since the attack.

“From my first steps on the track, I had the impression that I had to run as long as possible, so as not to be caught,” says Alaize who now lives in Miami.

“I remember like it was yesterday my first night after this session, it was… wow! I had cleared my mind. I was free.

“My energy, my hatred, were focussed on the track. I understood that sport could be my therapy.”

He tried horseback riding and enjoyed it, reaching level six, out of seven, until he pulled the plug.

“It was my horse that let off steam and not me,” he laughs.

The psychologist did not work out either.

“She made me make circles and squares. After a few sessions I told her that I wanted to change my method.”

However he did click with his school physical education teacher, who directed him to athletics after he had anchored his team to a spectacular “comeback” win in a 4×100 metre relay.

His classmates had no idea he was an amputee. He had hidden it to avoid teasing and more racial abuse.

“I was called 'bamboula', dirty negro, the monkey. It was hard.”

Fortunately, the Alaize family, who adopted him after he had spent five years in a Bujumbura orphanage where his father had abandoned him, gave Jean-Baptiste a base and a home that he had not had for years.

“When I arrived here I didn't know it was possible,” he said.

“I had lost that side, to be loved. I still can't understand how racism can set in, when I see my parents who are white, and I am a black child… they loved me like a child.”

His parents, Robert and Daniele, had already adopted a Hutu child from Rwanda, renamed Julien.

John-Baptist was originally called Mugisha. It means “the lucky child” which is not quite how things worked out. His new family name, though, suits him better. Alaize is a pun in French for 'a l'aise' – at ease.

The French disabled sports federation spotted the prodigy, and he began collecting his first trophies, including four junior world titles at long jump, three of them with world records.

“It was starting to change my life and I was happy to represent France,” he says.

He went to the Paralympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016), where he finished fifth in the long jump, just five centimetres short of the bronze medal.

Now armed with his state-of-the-art prosthesis, which he nicknamed Bugatti, he was dreaming of taking a step up at Tokyo 2020 and going home to France with a medal but the postponement of the Games has decimated his sponsorships.

“I'm still looking to compete at Tokyo 2021 or 2022 and Paris 2024,” he says.

“If I don't succeed, I will have to turn the page which would be sad.”

He hopes that Rising Phoenix will raise his profile and maybe attract some sponsors.

The documentary's producer Ian Bonhote is in no doubt that Alaize's star is rising.

“He bursts through the screen. His story will resonate,” he says.

“The nine athletes in our documentary all have different backgrounds, but none survived what Jean-Baptiste suffered. His disability was imposed on him in such a savage and violent way.”

Rising Pheonix is available now to view on Netflix.

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