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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Former Member
Here is an excerpt from the article linked by "quicksilver":
'There are buoyancy issues,' FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu told SwimNews.com. Any device that makes the body more buoyant is banned by FINA."
The word "cheat" is not used in the body of the article.
FINA is going to look into it, seems to be the point of the article.
How do they test for buoyancy?
Do they ask one to float on their back and see how high their torso lies near the surface?
That's not a great test since a little more or less air in the lungs will alter the results.
Sitting on a scale underwater with a LZR on will still make a 150 pound swimmer weigh 150 pounds unless they were donning bubble wrap.
Like Saran wrap it (the LZR) has a very low permeability. Meaning that moisture and air has a limited passage through the material. Since the suit holds very little water...it's conceivable to tug on it and fill the torso area with a pocket of air right before your event. Ergo the Buoyancy effect.
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Former Member
Here is an excerpt from the article linked by "quicksilver":
'There are buoyancy issues,' FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu told SwimNews.com. Any device that makes the body more buoyant is banned by FINA."
The word "cheat" is not used in the body of the article.
FINA is going to look into it, seems to be the point of the article.
How do they test for buoyancy?
Do they ask one to float on their back and see how high their torso lies near the surface?
That's not a great test since a little more or less air in the lungs will alter the results.
Sitting on a scale underwater with a LZR on will still make a 150 pound swimmer weigh 150 pounds unless they were donning bubble wrap.
Like Saran wrap it (the LZR) has a very low permeability. Meaning that moisture and air has a limited passage through the material. Since the suit holds very little water...it's conceivable to tug on it and fill the torso area with a pocket of air right before your event. Ergo the Buoyancy effect.