Swimming Supersuits: Enough is Enough

When swimmers first started wearing body suits I wasn't swimming, and I found them curious. The technology was pretty marginal, but before long they became de rigeur at all of the top swim meets. Now, it is hard to find anyone, even at masters swim meets, wearing anything else.

When Speedo brought out the LZR Racer, I didn't get too excited, and even though the record books were being rewritten, prefered to focus on the improvements that were being made in coaching, scientific support and even facilities. The sport seemed to be gaining in profile, and maybe that accounted for something too.

There were plenty of people out there, such as Craig Lord, who writes for swimnews.com, who were publicly calling for the suits to be banned.

At the Olympics, almost every finalist wore the LZR Racer, so I thought, "well, it's a level playing field, so what".

Since then a number of other suits have been brought out that make the LZR Racer look like, well, a swimsuit.

The LZR Racer has panels made of polyurethane, the same material as a wetsuit. The new alternatives are single, polyurethane suits and have sparked even greater controversy - most recently at the French championships.

In the French Championships Alain Bernard became the first man to break 47 seconds for 100m freestyle (in a long course pool), posting 46.94 in the new Arena X-Glide suit (which has still to be ratified by FINA, the sport's governing body, although an application was lodged before the French champs). He then ditched the new suit for the final, finishing 3rd in 47.51, behind Frederick Bousquet who wore another similar suit, made by Italian manufacturers Jaked. Bousquet's time of 47.15s was the third fastest of all-time.

There are statistics to be found everywhere for the impact of the new suits, and just as many opinions.

One man who didn't go for a full bodysuit was triple Olympic bronze medallist Hugues Duboscq. Duboscq was fourth in the 50 breaststroke final after pocketing 18 of the past 20 French titles.

His coach, Christos Paparadopoulos, summed up the feeling of many in swimming when he said; "We work every day hoping for a good performance and it is all ruined because we do not have the right suit."

Another interesting perspective is that these suits may change the physical profile of an elite swimmer entirely. Traditionally swimmers, even sprinters, have not been overly muscular, but some of the current crop are much bigger and more defined. It may be that the buoyancy gained from the suit allows for a more muscular - and less buoyant - physique

At another level altogether, I witnessed another suit in action this weekend - made by Blue Seventy. I haven't seen the others up close, but having done so this weekend: It is a wetsuit. I don't care how "thin" it is.

Now, to be honest, if at Olympic level everyone is wearing them, should we really care? I mean, like I thought when I watched the Olympics in Beijing, it's a level playing field, right?

Wrong. What about at the levels of the sport where swimsuits aren't given by sponsors, but bought?

People could make National teams, get funding, win titles not because they are the best swimmer but because they have the right suit. And at up to £300 a go, there will always be haves and have nots. It may also be that their impact is greater on moderate swimmers than it is on the best - which may promote inferior swimmers to elite levels.

What frightens me most is the impact that these suits could have in youth swimming, on so many levels. What message does it send out to the swimmers if so much is down to the suit? What about talent identification? I mean, competition performance alone shouldn't be used to indicate talent, but it also can't be ruled out completely and every competitor tested for physical or other markers of talent?

Apparently the rules will be changed so that no more than 50% of a suit can be made of polyurethane. 

To be honest, I've been talking to friends who were swimmers*, and they now have no faith in the record books. What would Popov, Biondi or Jaeger have done in one of these suits? We'll never know. And we may never know what Bernard or Bousquet could do in a good, old-fashioned pair of trunks.

It's time to get back to basics. Stop tinkering around the margins. I'm buying the argument that men should race in trunks, women in 'normal' swimsuits. The problem is, until FINA get a grip of the rules, you can't blame swimmers for wanting the best technology they can have...

*Credit to Mike Wynn and Pete Henry for inspiring this blog. Like them, I think we should get back to trunks. But I won't share their ideas for revolutionising women's swimming.

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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com