Saturday, December 27, 2008

Eamon Sullivan's coach, Grant Stoelwinder, suggest that the 'Speedo LZR' may not be the fastest suit!

Grant Stoelwinder is the head coach of the West Coast Swimming Club; his most notable accomplishment is sprinter, Eamon Sullivan. He is now working with Libby Trickett. Stoelwinder has placed himself in the "suit burner" camp and he had some very provocative things to say about speedsuits to the Sydney Morning Herald:

"....Grant Stoelwinder believed the controversial Speedo LZR Racer, the suit that ignited the record spree, shaved about 0.3 of a second off times per lap compared to previous suits - an enormous advance in sporting terms.

[...]

"I don't fool myself for one second as a coach and the trouble is as coaches some people think that swimmers are improving and you have to put it at about .3 per 50 with the Speedo suit on and I think some of them are even more. ..."

[Link]

He mentions that if speedsuits are banned, world records may be untouchable for a least a decade or so. Hence, one has to ask if that would benefit swimming in any way?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i dont understand why everyone pretends like only 3 or 4 athletes have access to these suits. if you havent noticed, everyone is wearing them! no one is at a disadvantage because we all have these suits!

also, i understand these suits are expensive, but compared to other sports, swimming is fairly cheap. you pay for club dues and training suits, and then depending on the club, you might have to buy some equipment.

Tony Austin said...

Damn straight! How much money does a Triathlete spend just on bicycle or faster wheels? (Oh and is tha tech doping?)

How much money does a golfer spend at a country club!?

You nailed it!

Anonymous said...

Grant Stoelwinder left Perth for Sydney after the Olympics and is now the head coach at the New South Wales Institute of Sport.

In regards to Anon, I think the problem is that it's very difficult to determine which suit is fastest. It's certainly possible that if every swimmer at Beijing was wearing the exact same suit, then the results may have been different.