LZR - It's Faster, but by how much ?

Former Member
Former Member
After seeing a woman break 24 seconds and I think we can stop the discussion of "IF" the LZR suit is faster and start thinking "how much faster". The previous line of suits (Fastskin and so on) were pretty similiar to a shaved swimmer. Sure - they do feel like they make you float, but overall the times seemed to move along "in line" with what I would expect to see in terms of improvements in the sport. If the previous suits would have been that much faster than shaving, you would have never seen people just using the legskins. By the way - for us Masters swimmers there was always the added benefit of keeping in all the "extra layers of skin". So how much faster are the LZR suits ? If I had to guess based on the results so far, I would say 0.25 to 0.30 per 50 and double that for the 100. I can see the Bernard going 48 low in the 100 and I can see Sullivan getting close or just breaking the 50 record. It makes sense that Libby Lenton would swim a 24.2 or so in the 50. I think one of the top regular teams out there should do a test - you need a good amount of world class swimmers training together to be able to do a test. Here is the test I would propose: 8-10 swimmers 2 days of testing 4x50 on 10 minutes all out Day 1 - swim 2 with a Fastskin2 followed by 2 with the LZR Day 2 - swim 2 with the LZR followed by 2 with the Fastskin2 Get the averages of all 10 swimmers - maybe drop the high and low and there you go. Why do the test ? I would HAVE to know. Swimming is a big part of your life and you just set a massive PR using this new technology - my very first question would be " How much was me and how much was the suit?"?
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  • Note: Jeff Roddin has planned to wear 4 layered tech suits at Masters Nationals in Oregon. However the suits maxed out his USMS VISA card and he wasn’t able to afford the plane fare.:cry: I look forward to seeing Jeff at zones clad in a bodysuit and B70 topped with his TYR knee skin that is way too big for him. That should be a sight. At least he won't look so skinny. This season, I lifted weights, and discussed that and a million other SR things extensively. So I'm good, Tim. I'll be tech glad at my next meet, as usual. But one is enough. I think FINA will ultimately clarify or change the rule. Wearing multiple tech suits to achieve an illegal effect is an end run around the rules. Just to play a devil's advocate to Bill's excellent analyis, I think that the fact that "competitor" and "suit" are both singular is telling of intent. Plus, despite the fact that one suit is legal, I see no reason why multiple suits couldn't have a collectively illegal effect. Line drawing is a fact of life. And how hard is it here? One swimmer, one suit.
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  • Note: Jeff Roddin has planned to wear 4 layered tech suits at Masters Nationals in Oregon. However the suits maxed out his USMS VISA card and he wasn’t able to afford the plane fare.:cry: I look forward to seeing Jeff at zones clad in a bodysuit and B70 topped with his TYR knee skin that is way too big for him. That should be a sight. At least he won't look so skinny. This season, I lifted weights, and discussed that and a million other SR things extensively. So I'm good, Tim. I'll be tech glad at my next meet, as usual. But one is enough. I think FINA will ultimately clarify or change the rule. Wearing multiple tech suits to achieve an illegal effect is an end run around the rules. Just to play a devil's advocate to Bill's excellent analyis, I think that the fact that "competitor" and "suit" are both singular is telling of intent. Plus, despite the fact that one suit is legal, I see no reason why multiple suits couldn't have a collectively illegal effect. Line drawing is a fact of life. And how hard is it here? One swimmer, one suit.
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