Sydney: Swimmers vying for gold at the Paris Olympics this month are banking on the latest swimwear to be their secret weapon in the pool.
Competitors believe that medals can make a difference in sports that sometimes can only be determined by your fingertips, but the evidence is not so convincing.
Driven by technology inspired by space travel, Speedo has released a new version of the Fastkin LZR Racer suit as the most waterproof version to date.
Wanting to provide a sense of “weightlessness,” top swimmers such as Australian Emma McKeon, America’s Caeleb Dressel and England’s Adam Peaty will wear them when they try to shave every fraction of a second off their time.
“This is my Speedo rocket suit,” said Dressel, the freestyle and butterfly ace who won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in a previous version of the suit.
“I believe the new (suit) will help me,” he said.
McKeon, who won four golds, including four at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, called his new outfit “faster than before” as he skated “out of the water”.
The suit uses cloaking technology originally used to protect satellites.
It is the latest development in a decades-long reign to push the boundaries with other brands such as Arena, Mizuno and Jacket.
“Being in the water, being in the water, the biggest factor is the long and distant drag,” Kevin Netto, an exercise science specialist at the Curtin School of Allied Health in Perth, told AFP.
“So anything that changes drag is worth its weight in gold.”
Over the years, swimsuits have evolved through flannel, rayon, cotton, silk, latex, nylon, and lycra.
It is now being demanded by world aquatics to be made of permeable material, as the controversial full body Speedo worn at the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been labeled as ‘technological doping’.
Seamless and partially polyurethane, NASA-assisted design to strengthen and support muscles, significantly reduce drag, and facilitate fast swimming.
It contributed to the rising world record at the Games held in China.
More advanced models include the Arena split polyurethane suit and the 01 polyurethane Jacket, which set another record for the 2009 World Cup.
World Aquatics, then known as FINA, banned polymer-based suits since 2010 after growing criticism that they offered unacceptable performance strengths.
Full body suits are also prohibited. Now they can only be worn from knee to waist and from knee for women.
Reducing drag from the water remains a key function of today’s wetsuit, helping to maintain body shape.
“If they provide compression, you don’t if you have a low-flow massager,” Netto said.
“This basically keeps the figure very organized, you can not have more swings or waves”.
But for all that, despite the research findings, the effect of the suit on performance remains inconclusive, with progress in nutrition and training contributing to swimmers going fast.
In 2019, the European University of Madrid conducted 43 studies on the subject and said there was no clear consensus.
“There is controversy because there are people who sincerely believe that this swimsuit has merit in performance at all.”
“However, the lack of evidence clarifying such views casts doubt on any consensus among researchers, even through the years”.
It’s not just swimwear that is seeing major technological advances. The spectacular goggles can provide real-time fitness information while you swim, and while they’re not Olympic-approved, you can still track a variety of metrics that can be viewed on the goggles.
