AP – The iconic LZR Racer, the swimsuit that Michael Phelps wore while winning eight golds medals at the Beijing Olympics, is still revered around Speedo’s design centre.
It serves as a reminder of just how much a suit can push a swimmer to greater heights.
“In so many ways, that was the golden era,” said head of innovation at Speedo’s Aqualab in London, Coora Lavezzo. “We’ve got those suits upstairs, and even though I wasn’t there at the time, I’m fascinated by them and just how we can get back to a smidge of that former glory.”
Of course, the rules these days are much more of a hindrance to swimsuit designers, the result of a wild summer 15 years ago in which rubberised attire was all the rage, leading to 43 world records being set at the championships in Rome.
The international governing body, now known as World Aquatics, decided the polyurethane suits – many of them covering nearly the entire body – were making a mockery of the sport. So the organisation hastily imposed strict new rules requiring textile fabrics and limiting the amount of body coverage from the hip to just above the knees for men, while women’s racing attire cannot extend past the shoulder or cover the neck.
For coaches such as Bob Bowman, who worked with Phelps over his entire career and was on hand in Rome for a speed show that bordered on a farce, the rules are just fine the way they are.
“Everybody is on a level playing field,” he said. “We’re still breaking world records in these suits. The sport is moving forward.”
But major swimsuit designers such as Speedo, TYR and arena are pushing for the guidelines to be liberalised.
They pump millions of dollars into the sport, and would love nothing more than to be allowed to come up with revolutionary new designs that lead to vastly improved performances. But as things stand now, their hands are largely tied. Faster times come in tiny increments.
The suits remain an important element for any swimmer’s performance, but the impact is nothing like it was during the rubber era.
“I think a lot of our sport is just mental,” United States (US) Olympian Hunter Armstrong said. “It’s just about feeling good in the water.”
The manufacturers are desperate to do more.
“When the pushback came after those world championships in Rome, (World Aquatics) freaked out and they said we need rules quickly, we need to do something,” said head of innovation and design at Italian-based arena, Greg Steyger. “Unfortunately, that was in such a hurry that those rules are not the right rules for sure. But they’ve stuck to them, they’ve defended them, they’ve done everything to keep them.”
The director of merchandising at TYR, Rachel Ripley, said her company is constantly lobbying for an easing of the restrictions.
“It’s been pretty status quo for 15 years,” she said. “There hasn’t really been much push or shake-up. It’s something that I think we constantly talk about, but it requires more than just the manufacturers to make that change happen.”
Even with rules as they are, the swimsuit manufacturers said they are still able to come up with innovative creations that can make a crucial difference in a sport where races are often decided by mere hundredths of a second.
For Speedo, the new Fastskin LZR Intent and LZR Valor suits were developed through a partnership with Lamoral, a company better known for protective coatings that are used to extend the life of satellites in outer space.
Then there’s TYR’s Venzo suit, which is made with a frictionless yarn that evolved from military uses, most notably in socks worn by infantry soldiers who do a lot of marching.
Not to be outdone, arena has come up with the POWERSKIN Primo that it bills as the “world’s first tensoelastic suit”, made of a trademarked fabric known as Hyperforce that supposedly provides the maximum amount of body compression – a key element in buoyancy – but far more flexibility than previous designs.
“You’re talking about maybe a one-per-cent difference in a race,” said Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy, America’s top men’s backstroke swimmer and a longtime Speedo-endorsed athlete. “Any little thing we can get to improve times, improve body position in the water, assist your technique, you’re really looking for that.” – Paul Newberry
