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?"?
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.
FWIW, I agree. The genie is out of the bottle, in any case. My point in reproducing the quoted material was that the article title was tabloid journalism.
It looks terribly uncomfortable; the men couldn't wait til after the interviews to ease out of top half. Perhaps that is where Tyr and others will try to distinguish their new offerings.
VB
It looks terribly uncomfortable; the men couldn't wait til after the interviews to ease out of top half.
The first time I wore one of these technical full-body suits (the FSII, not the LZR) and I compained to my wife about this, she replied as predictably as you might imagine: she told me to zip it, that women have been dealing with uncomfortable body suits the whole time.
Picking one relay race because it confirms your suspicions just doesn't do anything for me (sorry).
I'm sorry....I guessed you missed the 14 (and counting) world records over 6 weeks?
I beleive that some of these records are drug tainted, I also believe that there is an effect with this suit.
14 records could they possibly all drug free???
How many are drug related???
Must we all be pessimests???
Are you certain any of these 14 are drug related or is it a quess???
No we're not all pessimists, George. But there's a wide gap between being a pessimist and being a pollyanna.
I have to fully agree with Paul on the suit. With that many records falling that quickly, I'm hard pressed to conclude that the suit doesn't make some difference. I don't think it's just the "Olympic Effect." I don't think it's all PEDS either.
I'm sorry....I guessed you missed the 14 (and counting) world records over 6 weeks?
Shrug. It is suggestive that something is going on. Anything beyond that is guess: suit, PEDs, training, Olympic year, the stellar alignment, a statistical aberration. To assign or partition cause with any certainty you simply have to design a good experiment, otherwise you are just blowing smoke.
How do they test for buoyancy?
I don't know, but it seems like it would be pretty easy. Submerge a suit and make sure you get all the trapped air out, then let go and see if it rises to the surface.
Former Member
14 records could they possibly all drug free???
How many are drug related???
Must we all be pessimests???
Are you certain any of these 14 are drug related or is it a quess???
Is it possible the swim suit is not a factor???
Are we sure the suit is the reason for these records being broken???
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
"The first time I wore one of these technical full-body suits (the FSII, not the LZR) and I compained to my wife about this, she replied as predictably as you might imagine: she told me to zip it, that women have been dealing with uncomfortable body suits the whole time."
I told my special one that the elegant soultion is to wear my speedo. After all, all that extra material gave her an unfair advantage.
As usual she begged to disagree.
My next tack was to suggest that men had finally become enlightned enough to see the wisdom in stopping the jiggley effect.
She suggested I put down my beer and lift weights.
