LZR

Yeah, it looks like Speedo may have some technical issues to work out :)

improving their performance, rather than deciding what suit to wear. I can see both sides. This is one sport which for the most part is not dominated by equipment - you have a suit and goggles and maybe a cap, and other than that you just swim. Compare that to cycling. On the other hand if someone had already done the things you mentioned (training, nutrition, etc) then I can see where they'd want the advantage of a specialized suit to get any final performance improvement. In my case, I'm so far from having optimized my training and nutrition that I don't see the point in spending a lot of money on a fancy suit. Some people like to be fashionable too, don't forget that aspect!

Only $120? Here's the thing. If you believe these suits really do work as advertised, then shouldn't you cover as much of your body as possible? Buying a brief seems like a waste of money to me. if the suits work as advertised, aren't they illegal? I know that has been beat to death on many swimming forums, but that is the elephant in the room. you aren't allowed to wear suits that make you faster.

Only $120? Here's the thing. If you believe these suits really do work as advertised, then shouldn't you cover as much of your body as possible? Buying a brief seems like a waste of money to me. Right... I think that a lot of the benefits of these new tech suits come from the compression provided - not just the fabrics. For people like myself with some pretty large muscular legs, the compression is pretty helpful not only with channeling muscle energy together but also in creating a more streamlined leg surface by effectively giving me skinnier legs.

if the suits work as advertised, aren't they illegal? I know that has been beat to death on many swimming forums, but that is the elephant in the room. you aren't allowed to wear suits that make you faster. FINA has declared them legal,even though by FINA rules they either don't do what they are supposed to do,or they should be illegal by FINA's rules.

FINA has declared them legal,even though by FINA rules they either don't do what they are supposed to do,or they should be illegal by FINA's rules. i.e., Speedo and its competitors threw a bunch of money at FINA and said "look the other way". not stating this as fact, but I could see this happening all too easily.

No, you're wrong about the rule. The suit can't be buoyant. Now how they test for buoyancy I don't know. These suits are buoyant when dry. However there's no rule against a suit reducing drag and that's the stated advantage of these suits by the manufacturers.

To accurately measure buoyancy, across different fabrics and designs, the material has to be saturated with water. If I throw my dry suit into the water, it floats initially. As it saturates, it sinks. Some fabrics retain air bubbles much more effectively than others. My Aquablade retains air bubbles for a minute or so after I jump in the water where my training suit saturates almost instantly. The buoyancy from air bubbles trapped in the fabric is fairly inconsequential compared with the buoyancy (or lack thereof) of the swimmer when you look at a jammer or a brief, but a whole body-suit with trapped air bubbles could indeed make a buoyancy difference. I have a very difficult time believing that a technical suit reduces the drag over the bare skin of a swimmer in an amount significant enough for a .09 second drop. I don't know enough about human kinesiology and physiology to quantify the effects of compression on muscles. Perhaps that effect could make a difference that big. I know that I swim just as fast in my training suit as I do in my racing jammer. But that's probably because I'm not a great swimmer.

Did any of these suits ever win a race without a great swimmer in the suit.

I wonder for just 120$ can you get a LZR racer brief? Cause the seams do look pretty cool (the only feature I actually like).. Only $120? Here's the thing. If you believe these suits really do work as advertised, then shouldn't you cover as much of your body as possible? Buying a brief seems like a waste of money to me.