LAUSANNE, Switzerland — A panel of swimming experts met Monday to decide which high-tech swimsuits will be approved for racing on a list scheduled for release Tuesday.

FINA, the sport’s governing body, appointed a special commission to sift through laboratory test results for hundreds of different suit designs.
FINA officials refused to disclose details of the panel’s work, which seeks to restore some order to a sport where technology has helped render the record book almost unrecognizable within 15 months of space-age suits hitting the market.
Commission members are deciding which suits can be worn at the FINA world championships scheduled for July 19-Aug. 2 in Rome, and for the rest of the year.
The list will be revealed after the panel visits laboratories at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where suits were tested last month for thickness, buoyancy and water resistance.
The lab will conduct a second round of tests later this year to create a more tightly controlled list that will regulate race-ready suits starting Jan. 1, 2010.
While the rules promise more clarity in international swimming next year, the 2009 season threatens to swirl into chaos.
Suits currently being worn will be illegal beginning next year, when a maximum of 50 percent non-permeable material will be permitted.
Polyurethane suits have been used in recent weeks to set world-record times that have not been ratified because manufacturers handed the designs over to swimmers faster than FINA was able to test them.
The technology race started when the NASA-tested Speedo LZR suit arrived in February 2008. It was worn by the majority of swimmers who set 108 new world records last year.
But the Speedo design has been outstripped by polyurethane models such as the Arena X-Glide and the Italian-made Jaked suit.
A Jaked suit was worn by Frederick Bousquet when he swam a world-best 20.94 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle at the French national championships last month.
The 28-year-old Frenchmen also wore it when beating Michael Phelps by almost a full second in the 100 free at the Charlotte UltraSwim on Sunday.