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?"?
Parents
  • I'll put my money on FINA determining the suit does NOT violate the rules. Then it will just end up as a publicity coup for Speedo: the suit is perfectly legal, it's just that fast. I agree with Kirk. Speedo has been going to FINA during all stages of the production process and has received approvals to go forward with the suit. Any problems in the sample prototypes were communicated and corrected. That would mean if there were buoyancy issues, they should have been delt with before they went into full scale production. Any manufactuer of technical suits knows of the TYR forearm sleeves situation that was banned by FINA even though TYR went into full scale production, thinking there product was legal and could be used in the competition. This had to be a major investment loss for TYR. Speedo has a major investment in this project and has worked with NASA in the development steps, so I don't think they would keep the process going without the approvals of FINA. I think the reaction to the 16 World Records and the countries not being able to get them for there selection trials is the biggest issue at the moment. From what I understand, the demand for these suits is greater than the supply at the moment and Speedo cannot keep up with the current demand right now. www.latimes.com/.../la-sp-swim27mar27,0,4318187.story
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  • I'll put my money on FINA determining the suit does NOT violate the rules. Then it will just end up as a publicity coup for Speedo: the suit is perfectly legal, it's just that fast. I agree with Kirk. Speedo has been going to FINA during all stages of the production process and has received approvals to go forward with the suit. Any problems in the sample prototypes were communicated and corrected. That would mean if there were buoyancy issues, they should have been delt with before they went into full scale production. Any manufactuer of technical suits knows of the TYR forearm sleeves situation that was banned by FINA even though TYR went into full scale production, thinking there product was legal and could be used in the competition. This had to be a major investment loss for TYR. Speedo has a major investment in this project and has worked with NASA in the development steps, so I don't think they would keep the process going without the approvals of FINA. I think the reaction to the 16 World Records and the countries not being able to get them for there selection trials is the biggest issue at the moment. From what I understand, the demand for these suits is greater than the supply at the moment and Speedo cannot keep up with the current demand right now. www.latimes.com/.../la-sp-swim27mar27,0,4318187.story
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