With the parity of international swimming again threatened by scientists (this time bearing polyurethane swimsuits rather than vials of ’roids), who better to talk to than Nicole Livingstone?

Australia’s men’s relay clout, as shown in Melbourne 2007, is returning to full-strength. Australia’s men’s relay clout, as shown in Melbourne 2007, is returning to full-strength. Image: Getty Images

After all, it was Livingstone who spent her eight-year career paddling uphill against a posse of Chinese and East European behemoths juiced to the eyeballs. And she still emerged with an Olympic silver and two bronze, three Commonwealth golds and four Pan Pacific golds. So, with the Rome World Champs casting a long shadow, fill your wine glass and turn an ear to the new voice of Australian swimming on One HD

You lost your 16-year-old national 200m backstroke record last year to Megan Nay. Did it hurt to see it go?

Not really … recently there’s been such a huge jump in times with the suits. It was interesting because in those 16 years, only one girl ever went close to my time and now Megan’s going three seconds quicker! But no, it didn’t hurt because you can’t hold on to that stuff forever. You know, records are made to be broken; medals last forever. Eamon Sullivan proved that at the Olympics – he broke two WRs in Beijing but walked away with the silver. It’s about medals more than records.

Last year 108 world records were broken. As a retired swimmer, does that frustrate you?

It’s mad. Last year was ridiculous and I’m pleased that FINA have had enough pressure put on them to actually do something about it. But I was disappointed with their recent decision, where they ratified 202 suits, rejected ten and sent 136 back to be modified and then resubmitted before June 19. In my opinion, those 136 suits should’ve been banned for the World Champs and told to resubmit in November for the next round of testing. That way it would’ve been more cut and dried; swimmers would’ve known straight away what they can and can’t wear at these Championships. Look, I don’t mind the suit technology; I don’t mind that the suits give swimmers compression in the core and help with lowering lactic acid by keeping the blood flow taut under the suit. But when the suits look like wetsuits and offer flotation, that’s not in the spirit of things.

Nicole Livingstone. Nicole Livingstone. image: Getty Images

Have you ever swum in one of the suits?

No, they take about 15 minutes to get on, so I have to ask myself whether that’s how I want to spend 15 minutes of my life! But I know Dan Kowalski just broke three WRs at the Australian Masters in Queensland wearing one of the suits that have subsequently been banned, and he said, “It’s amazing. I felt like I was hydrofoiling on top of the water.” No doubt they make a difference and we need to limit that difference, pull the handbrake very firmly …

Look, I remember when I used to swim there were national teams who we knew were involved in systematic doping. It was infuriating to work your butt off and know it was all for nothing. And I guess, if you look at all these swimsuits, we’re potentially heading down the same path. If somebody’s wearing a suit that’s clearly got such a huge advantage over another suit, then what are you working for? Why stand behind the blocks and be beaten before you’ve started? That’s why I’m so pleased they’ve outlawed some of the suits they have.

But only ten of 348 …

Yeah, but those ten were the really blatant ones.

Were you impressed with the team’s performance in Beijing?

Generally they did really well. We walked away with six gold medals ... all from the women. But the men are really starting to make headway toward the medal dais again – I realised that when they scored medals in all three of the relays. In fact, the entire team won medals in all six relays. To have that kind of depth against the bigger countries is phenomenal.

So you’re convinced the Aussie boys are on the up?

Absolutely. They’re starting to think about a return to the 2000 era where the boys won the 4x100 free. In Grant Stoelwinder’s squad at Sydney’s Ian Thorpe Pool we’ve got three of the four boys who’ll be in that 4x100 team – Matt Abood, Andrew Lauterstein and Eamon Sullivan – training together, which is brilliant. And Libby trains with them too, which is great for her – she ends up racing like a man because she’s constantly trying to catch them at training.

Has the Nick D’Arcy affair hurt Australian swimming’s clean image?

With the Nick D’Arcy thing … you can’t blame swimming for that. Swimming hasn’t made Nick D’Arcy do the things he’s done; Nick D’Arcy has done the things he’s done.Yes, swimming’s image has been squeaky clean, but with all this Facebook stuff, I think people are starting to see our swimmers as a little bit more human, a bit more real. They’re starting to see that, within their confines, they do have social lives.

Did you agree with Swimming Australia’s decision to allow D’Arcy to swim at the Australian Championships and thus qualify for the World Champs?

Well, they couldn’t have stopped him at that stage because, although he pleaded guilty, until he’d gone through the process and received his criminal conviction, he was free to swim. I mean, how did they know the judge wasn’t going to let him off with a warning and not record his criminal conviction? Those scenarios do happen. We’re in the land of litigation, unfortunately …Swimming Australia did the right thing and I think they followed their processes well. They got really good legal advice and they handled the affair with a very clear thought process.

– Aaron Scott