I’ve noticed that the men’s swimming attire changes from event to event (Phelps in full body suit sometimes, only shorts others) and from swimmer to swimmer in the same event (Phelps in full body suit, other swimmer in just shorts).
Why is that? Here are my assumptions which make me ask:
There is an “official” or sanctioned material for swimmers to wear. That is, The US can’t use some space aged polymer to reduced drag by 50% while Croatia wears burlap sacks. Is there anything behind this?
Based on assumption no. 1. Assuming everyone uses, say lycra. It seems to reason that if it reduces drag on Phelps it reduces drag on guy not named Phelps. (Though obviously there are more guys than Phelps in full body suits. Including Federica Pellegrini. Why oh why won’t she go the “just shorts” route?)
So, why is it that the style of swim wear varies so much?
The LZR suits by Speedo are much talked-about this Olympics as contributing to the fast times. I think they are available to most all the athletes, albeit not personally tailored for most of them. There are regulations about what you can wear for swimwear, but more having to do with what needs to be covered, and what logos are acceptable. Burlap would probably be acceptable, but someone would hopefully loan Croatia some suits just for the PR.
They (the LZR, specifically) are designed to reduce drag/friction/etc. – most especially across the swimmer’s chest. So backstrokers are unlikely to wear them, because drag across their chest isn’t too much of a problem.
It’s also kind of traditional for swimmers to strip down to faster suits as they go from heats to prelims to finals. So you might see someone wearing a LZR in finals but not in prelims (Phelps, IIRC, did this).
And, frankly, the damn things are probably really uncomfortable. I haven’t tried on one of the modern suits, but bodysuits squeeze tight. That’s why the guys wearing them strip out of them so fast, and may be why some swimmers don’t want to wear them at all.
I was a competitve swimmer for many years and I retired just before the bodysuits started getting really big. It’s all about drag. Apparently, those new Speedo suits are designed like the skin of a mako shark. It’s all pretty interesting and fascinating and enough to ping your bullshit-o-meter until you realize that people are annihilating times (seemingly) without chemical help.
I think that was the Fastskin that was designed to mimick sharkskin – the generation of bodysuit before the LZR. Sports Illustrated had a good article a couple of weeks ago on its development.
You and me both. One more person marvels that Dana Torres is able to dodder on down to the pool at the ancient (= my) age of 41… !
Our swim team did get to work with the Speedo folks back in the 80s. The ones who came were very cool people, kind of swimming nerds. And those were the cut-down racing suits, way before sharkskin or seamless bodysuits. Cool that they kept on improving.
Sometimes you’ll see athletes from other countries wearing LZR suits with the Speedo logo taped over because they are supposed to be wearing some other brand.
I don’t care what the suits are made of, I just love the teeny-tiny tight fits on all those streamlined male bodies.
I first started watching the male swimmers in 1984, when Michael Gross, from West Germany, was a star. AT 202cm(6’7") he was big for a swimmer, and had an incredible arm span that earned him the nickname “The Albatross” I noticed his…suit… and wished this girl could dry him off when he got out of the pool.
Alexander Dale Oen, who won the silver (WOOHOO!) in the 100m breast stroke for Norway, chose to swim in pants made of the same material but not the full LZR for just that reason - he doesn’t like it, and felt any slight improvement it might have given him would have been eaten up by the distraction of wearing the dang thing.
Since he broke Olympic records in his heats two days running and now holds the national and Nordic (and European?) records for the event, I think the pants worked out okay for him
They actually make different suits for different events. The backstroke has the zipper on the front, or at least some suits do, I’m not sure about all of them. Speedo also has to make them available to all competitors, otherwise they wouldn’t be allowed at all. This was a huge problem in 2000 because at first they weren’t going to make them available to most of the swimmers.
One of the reasons that you see them with different suits on is because of the stroke mechanics. For things like the fly and breast most swimmers tend to not want all the tightness on the shoulders since both arms are going forward at the same time.
Those suits are also a real pain in the ass to put on. When I first wore one I remember it took a good five minutes to put on. I bought one for a friend who lives in Ireland and decided to try one of the newer ones on, I couldn’t even get it on even though we’re the same size it was so tight. Well I could have gotten it on, but I didn’t want to ruin it for him.
At this Olympics, the bodysuits seem a little more, shall we say, sedate. Back in 2000, when the “sharkskin” suits made their debut, I remember that much was made of how these new high-tech suits could be made in just about any color or pattern. I seem to recall some very colorful, even gaudy designs. Of course, eight years later, I can’t find any pictures.
