For swimmers, new suit a stroke of genius
Brand loyalties shift as records fall before Games
OMAHA - The swimmers talk about the suit as if it's a supernatural skin. "When I put it on, I feel like some kind of Action Hero, ready to take on the world," said global backstroke champion Ryan Lochte.
Michael Phelps, who could win a record eight Olympic medals in Beijing, says that Speedo's LZR Racer makes him feel like a rocket. Katie Hoff, the world titlist in both individual medleys, says it's like flying in the water.
Swimmers using the new ultra-sleek full-length bodysuit have torn up the record book this year, producing 38 world marks in less than four months. Even more records are expected to be set by LZR users in the US trials, which begin today, and all of them could be wiped out at the Beijing Games in August.
"I think you'll see not only multiple world records broken, but also multiple swimmers breaking world records in an event," said US national team coach Mark Schubert.
LZR users appear to have such an advantage that
"It's a bit unprecedented," acknowledged Dean Stoyer, spokesman for Nike, which makes the competing Swift Amp'd. "But we want our athletes to be comfortable and prepared, and we don't want to get in the way of that."
While breakthrough designs are customary in Olympic years, the $550 Speedo suit, designed with the help of both NASA and fashion designer Comme des Garcons, has stirred controversy because its features seem to increase buoyancy. Italian coach Alberto Castagnetti said that the design amounted to "technological doping."
The woven fabric, which is extremely light and water-repellent, is ultrasonically welded together rather than sewn, with compression panels placed along the chest, thighs, and buttocks, plus a corset-like "core stabilizer" to minimize drag and maximize streamlining.
"It's super-tight, but it really feels like part of your body when you put it on," said Natalie Coughlin, who set the world record in the 100-meter backstroke five days after the suit was introduced in February.
The LZR design can reduce times by as much as 2 percent. In a sport where gold medals can be decided by hundredths of a second, that's a whopping difference, and some swimmers claim that Speedo rivals have an unfair advantage.
"If I were to go out there in a scuba suit, it wouldn't be fair, either," said Massimiliano Rosolino, who won four medals for Italy at the last two Games. "There's something not right about it."
Yet FINA, the world aquatics federation, has approved the LZR, while requiring Speedo to make it available to all comers. The company has brought 2,500 of the LZRs, which come in three styles, to the trials and will fit any swimmer who wants one. The option has created a dilemma for national teams and top swimmers who had already signed deals with other companies.
Though the Japanese federation has contracts with three other suppliers, it's allowing swimmers to switch to Speedo after 16 domestic records were broken this month at the Japan Open. The German swimmers were so concerned that they would be also-rans at Olympus that adidas quickly developed a new design for them.
And while Nike is confident that its swimmers will be competitive in the Swift Amp'd, the company gave its six contract swimmers the freedom to use other suits at the trials, where only the top two in each event qualify for the Olympics.
"Obviously, Nike saw something I didn't," said Hansen, who says he's not sure whether he'll use the LZR this week. "If they feel you're not in the right product, they'll put you in the right product and worry about it later."
Speedo's other rivals aren't as lenient. TYR wants its swimmers using the Tracer Rise bodysuit and sued distance specialist Erik Vendt, a two-time Olympic medalist, when he switched to the LZR worn by his Club Wolverine teammates.
"Our contract athletes are expected to swim in TYR," said spokeswoman Kim Fabian, whose company has arrangements with sprinter Amanda Weir, butterflyer Mary Descenza, and breaststroker Eric Shanteau, among others.
When Schubert advised swimmers to switch to Speedo at the trials "or they may end up watching at home on NBC," TYR sued him, Speedo's parent company, and USA Swimming for falsely disparaging other companies' products.
Though the LZR Racer clearly is the Olympiad's hottest suit, as the FSII was in 2004, it's not a magic costume. "The suit doesn't necessarily do the work for you," said Ian Crocker, the world record-holder in the 100-meter butterfly, who wears an LZR.
But it's already helped transform above-average swimmers into world-beaters. Australian sprinter Eamon Sullivan, who was fifth in the 50-meter freestyle at last year's global meet, broke the world record three times in less than six weeks in a Speedo. French sprinter Alain Bernard, who didn't make the 100-meter freestyle final, broke that record twice in two days.
Both of those marks had endured since 2000, when swimmers wearing Speedo's Fastskin suit won 28 of 33 gold medals in Sydney. The Fastskin, modeled after a shark's drag-resistant covering, sparked a similar controversy, with critics claiming that it favored technology over ability.
"With every change, from silk to wool and cotton to nylon and lycra, there was controversy," said Bruce Wigo, chief executive officer of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. "This is nothing new."
More than any other sport, swimming has made great evolutionary leaps in design over the decades. When Duke Kahanamoku won gold in 1912, he wore a silk suit. When Johnny Weismuller was the world's best sprinter in the 1920s, he wore wool with shoulder straps. Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals in Munich in 1972, used a nylon brief with no cap or goggles. From there, it was lycra, then nylon-and-spandex "paper suits," the trend always lighter and slicker, with more glide and less drag. "We're always developing," said Deb Yeomans, project development manager for Speedo's Aqualab. "It never stops."
The LZR Racer is the latest upgrade to the bodysuit that came in with the new millennium. While it can take at least 15 minutes to wriggle into, the suit can make a swimmer feel like a Master of the Universe. "I dive in," said Hoff, "and I feel like I'm shooting through the water."
While some purists yearn for the days of Russian sprinter Alexander Popov, who won four Olympic gold medals in the '90s wearing glorified bathing trunks, most swimming insiders concede that the era of the Action Hero is here to stay.
"Everything in the world evolves and improves," said Bob Bowman, who coaches Phelps. "You just can't go back to that simpler time."
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com. 