Suit choices of the top 3 competitors in the 10k Open Water Race!
Amanda Weir swims her sprints in a TYR A7 and Fran Crippen just earned himself a bronze in the 10k open water portion at the FINA World Championships wearing one as well.
(It was a pretty messy decision to determine third and so I should not be talking about the race specifics but Steve Munatones can: [Link] )
Andrew Gemmell claimed the silver in a blueseventy NERO which has been proven to be the de facto standard for masters in both distance, middle distance, and sprints.
I am presuming that Thomas Lurz was wearing an Adidas when he claimed the gold but so little is known about Adidas in America...
So what have we learned about this? Despite massive budgets from power-houses like Speedo and Nike, the cream is rising to the top and the Speedo LZR isn't floating very well. Sure it is doing pretty good in the pool but it is now demonstrable that we have speedsuit manufacturers who are making swimsuits you can wear in any event and be fast and not have to worry about suit failures.
That to me is extraordinarily compelling.
What a coincidence it is that FINA politicians are right now being lobbied to return swimmers to both briefs and onesies!
Innovation like this can't and won't be suppressed. If FINA closes the door on speedsuits, I predict a second governing body will arise in the form of a 'Pro-League' and the last thing FINA would want is a second governing body making even more money than they do. Example: Gambling on 'keirin' or cycling racing in Japan generates $15 billion annually.
If a pro league was able to generate only one-tenth of that amount who do you think the IOC is goiong to take more seriously when it comes to sending a "dream team"?
With proper planning, revenue streams through gambling, which I have been looking into, let Alan Thompson and Mark Schubert can have their "wear briefs or go to jail rules" and everybody else can have fun.
I think mixing open water racing and pool racing like horse racing mixes turf and track would make for a dynamic sport to watch.
The Thomas Lurz photo came from this AP article nicely detailing the race: [Link]
The photo f Fran Crippen and Andrew Gemmell come to us from the Miami Herald who covers it in detail as well: [Link]
4 comments:
If you didn't see it, Steve posted a list of how many of which suits were in the women's 5k and the men's 10k races here:
http://www.10kswimmer.com/2009/07/swimsuit-competition-at-world.html
Thanks... Steve is a great open water swimmer and blogger
It was interesting to hear the comments from the open water swimmers who compete between 55 minutes (for the 5K) and 6 hours (for the 25K). Many of them do not like the tremendous pressure placed by the technical swimsuits on their shoulders. The European swimmers have experimented with many swimsuits in various pro races, so it was interesting to see what they wore. It was surprising to see how few Jaked and TYR swimsuits were used by the elite open water swimmers. And some swimmers used different swimsuits in different races, but some of those reasons included the fact that lanolin (that the swimmers put on their body) can completely ruin a suit after one swim.
Hi Steve, Your insights are always appreciated.
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