Speedo sponsored athlete: Andrew Lauterstein posted the fourth fastest 100m butterfly swimmer of all time in an 'Arena X-Glide!'

Steve sent us this! Every time I see Steve's name on a comment, I get a bolt of adrenaline up my spine and I think, "crap, I must have screwed up again!"

This is what Steve sent in from Hanson Media:

July 3: NSWIS swim star Andrew Lauterstein has moved himself well into medal contention for this month's World Championships in Rome by breaking the Commonwealth and Australian record for the 100m butterfly at the Giorgio Armani Swim Meet in Milan overnight. DAVID MOASE reports...

Lauterstein became the fourth fastest 100m butterfly swimmer of all time and just the fifth man under 51 seconds when he took 0.2 seconds off his previous best of 51.12 to set the new mark of 50.92.

[Link]

The Georgio Armani meet; How cool is that? I want to swim in that meet... No, strike that, I want to swim at a Bell & Ross swim meet and if you win, you get one of those cool watches that look like they came from a vintage German airplane!

So, this says two things to me: One, the Arena X-Glide is the new Jaked. Two, Speedo is essentially disowning the LZR like Nike did to their product.

For the record, I recommend the athletes sponsored by Speedo simply " ...Live by the sword and die by the sword." To change suits disrespects your sponsors and makes you, the athlete, look unreliable as a product endorser.

i.e. You race in the suit and if you lose, you eat a bunch of humble pie; every, single, freaking, crumb of it! Then you congratulate the winner graciously and you go look and see how many more days left on your contract or you renegotiate for loyalty money. But what do I know? - Not much! - All my medals are tin.

Fall on your sword!

Speedo may capitulate: May allow their stable of swimmers to wear competing swimsuits!

The last swimsuit manufacturer that allowed their athletes to wear whatever was Nike and Nike left the swimsuit market soon after.

Why is Speedo doing this?

I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that Speedo's potential capitulation may be a signal that they are abandoning the LZR and don't want to throw anymore money at it.

Again this is an assumption but for Speedo to allow their athletes to make such a bold endorsement of competing suits can't be taken lightly. Especially with names like Phelps, Torres, et al.

Here is what AP had to say:

"... Speedo is discussing whether to allow swimmers it sponsors to wear rival manufacturers' new high-tech suits.

"The brand is continuing to evaluate the situation internally," Speedo vice president for marketing Craig Brommers said in a statement Tuesday. ..."

[Link]

Deep down I am thinking that Speedo is going to write the LZR off since there is less than 6-months left in the year. I also believe, and you can call it a personal bias that I have, that FINA "feels their pain" and will hook them up in 2010 by wiping out several speedsuit companies with the stroke of a pen.

While Australian swimmers, coaches and Mr. Craig Lord will cheer this news, swimming will have fewer events and lower paid athletes as a result.

Above is a shot of world record holder in the 200 breastroke, Rebecca Soni, wearing a Speedo LZR at the 2009 TYR SwIm Meet of Champions.

Will 'Speedo' make a new suit for Michael Phelps at World Championships? - Mark Foster thinks so!

BBC Sport has quite a rant from Mark Foster.

Mark throws down with the anti-suit crowd and go as far as saying that Michael Phelps will be beat if he doesn't wear a Jaked or a 'Jaked analog.' (How is that for a suit endorsement? I bet the boys at the Jaked factory are loving it since they have now been crown the best suit available.)

Here is what Mark had to say:

"..."Michael Phelps is the best swimmer in the world but someone wearing a Jaked suit will beat him if he's using a Speedo suit - they are that effective." [...]

"Phelps is sponsored by Speedo and won't be able to wear this Jaked suit. Speedo will have to make a new suit for him."..."

[Link]

Other predictions about a FINA backlash are made by Australian, Performance Director, Michael Scott as well but quite frankly and quite honestly: the Australians were so very pro-Speedo LZR before they started getting their asses handed to them by swimmers wearing better suits.

Names like Anuary Leveaux, Alain Bernard, Frederick Bousquet, Cesar Cielo...

So, now that the advantage is not in Speedo's favor; and you know Australian Swimming is "owned" by Speedo, these athletes and coaches become "purists" or whatever adjective they shoose that makes them sound with rhetorical embellishment as the good guys.

So, here is my prediction: If we go back to briefs, jammers and one-piece suits, swimming will shrink due to boredom, lack of meet sponsorship capital, and lower payouts to athletes.

In just weeks, Australian has lost five world records to European swimmers!

From Nicole Jeffrey writing for the Australian:

Australia has lost five world records to European athletes in the past two weeks, none of whom was wearing a Speedo suit.

Rapidly evolving swimsuit technology is influencing results so much that sports newspaper L'Equipe listed the French team for the world titles by suit when it was announced this week.

Eleven of the 15 men and 14 of the 20 women in the team wore Jaked suits.

Three of the four men who did not - Bernard (Arena), Hugues Duboscq (Adidas) and Amaury Leveaux (Tyr) - had been pre-selected after winning Olympic medals last year.

In a complete reversal from the Beijing Games, when the Speedo LZR was regarded as the pace-setting suit, only five successful French swimmers wore Speedo.

[Link]

The Australian team is sponsored by Speedo but Australian Swim Team members can wear suits from a competing company as long as these suits are unbranded or do not display a logo or manufacturer name.

With all this in mind, which Australian athletes will be wearing unbranded suits versus the Speedo LZR? The subject of the article, Stephanie Rice, states that she does not have a suit sponsor. Obviously, Rice, was given remarkably good advice from her handlers to keep her suit options open and thereby allow her the opportunity to wear the fastest suit possible at any race she competes in.

Hence, we may see her in a Jaked come the 2009 Fina World Championships in Rome or a blueseventy Nero, or a TYR Titan, or perhaps a LZR in Rome.

Her logic seems so impregnable to me: Her swimming drives her business but her business does not drive, or is allowed to hurt, her swimming performance. This way her suit decisions remain flexible; (or fluid ;-), and she can feel absolutely in control of her suit decisions.

Next week is when the FINA releases their list of approved suits for 2010. With swimmers like, Eamon Sullivan, complaining that the aforementioned suits should be banned, has he not in turn promoted these suits as a superior alternative should they be allowed?

The most informative article I have ever read regarding the Jaked!

The Jaked has been accused by many has being hyper-buoyant but Spaniard Rafael Munoz says it is not:

From the ChinaDaily:

"... Some competitors said the suit had nothing to do with their displays.

Spaniard Rafael Munoz, who broke the 50 butterfly world record wearing a Jaked suit earlier this month and set a 100 butterfly European record on Saturday, said: "My times don't depend on the suit because if you throw it into the water it doesn't move by itself.

"It also has less buoyancy than others. It repels the water and could give some advantage but my times can only be achieved with a lot of work." ..."

[Link]

What also seems quite scandalous is that Bernard was wearing a suit without official FINA approval though Arena, his sponsor, say they submitted the suit well before the suit deadline! What does that mean before the suit deadline? Submission and approval are to different concepts.

Urethane is apparently the "new" Chloroprene; (The Jaked is all polyurethane), but now there is a rule in place for January 1st which states that only 50% of a speedsuit can be covered in polyurethane. The Speedo LZR and the TYR Tracer Rise make use of the urethane plates and they would seemingly be legal whereas the Jaked and others will have to undergo a major design retool.

What a coincidence that the two largest suit manufacturers happen to all ready meet that requirement well before that rule was even suggested in Dubai. (I am being sarcastic.) Could a person assume that both Speedo and TYR used their political leverage to game FINA? I don't know, but they both seemed better prepared design-wise heading into January 1st.

For instance: TYR has a Chloroprene suit; (TYR Titan), a polyurethane paneled suit; (Tracer Rise), and a "nylon" suit; (Tracer Light). They will certainly have one or more legal suits come 2010 whereas Jaked, Blueseventy, Rocket Science, and Arena may have some hefty R&D costs if FINA decides to reject what they have already approved.

As for Speedo, their urethane panels currently meet the 50% rule all ready out of the gate. It almost seems like some "psychic" alerted them to this rule two years in advance since their suit absolutely meets the "letter of the law" so thoroughly. It's almost creepy!

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?

'AM Lawyer Daily' - 'Speedo LZR' claims by Mark Shubert, challenged in a TYR lawsuit deposition!

Summary: The TYR lawsuit against USA Swimming et al. is moving forward and Kevin Youkilis of the American Lawyer Daily writes that in "... the deposition of Genadijus Sokolovas, USA Swimming's former director of physiology, ... Sokolovas said that Schubert's [Speedo LZR] comments; were "pure speculation" without any science to back them up...."

For some background on the TYR lawsuit itself, here is some info from an L.A. Times article by Lisa Dillman posted on May 15 2008:

"...In documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, TYR alleges that Speedo, USA Swimming and Schubert “combined to engage in a campaign of falsely disparaging the products of Speedo’s competitors, including TYR, for the purpose of inducing competitive swimmers to refrain from doing business with Speedo’s competitors” and that it was done in an “especially insidious and deceptive manner.”

TYR attorney Lawrence J. Hilton said the company made several efforts to settle the matter and that TYR’s founder, former U.S. Olympic swimmer and medalist Steve Furniss, took this step with “great reluctance.” ..."

[Link]

Mark Schubert, USA Swimming Olympic Team Coach, is also quoted here in the TimesOnline.Uk.co on April 9, 2008 as saying the following :

“My advice to athletes is, ‘You have a black-and-white decision - the money or the gold medal.' And it's going to be a real test of character.

“There is no doubt the suit makes a difference and there is no doubt that there is one manufacturer that's put millions into research while the other manufacturers are more into fashion. Nobody at this level [world-class athletes] can afford to give up 2 per cent. It is not rocket science. ...” -- Mark Schubert

[Link]

On June 28th, In the New York Times Blog: RINGS 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, Karen Crouse wrote this about Mark Schubert's realtionship with Speedo

"...What he did not mention is that the defendants, in asking for a continuance, provided sworn testimony from Stu Isaac, the director of marketing for Speedo, confirming that Schubert is paid to endorse Speedo and that one of Isaac’s jobs is to manage Speedo’s relationship with USA Swimming. ..."

[Link]

Kevin Youkilis, of the American Lawyer Daily is following it and this is what he wrote:

"... TYR, the industry's number two company, sued USA Swimming and Speedo for conspiring to squelch competition by promoting Speedo's $500, NASA-engineered full-body suit over TYR's similar product. (The suit centered around USA Swimming head coach Mark Schubert's public and private comments that Speedo's suit made swimmers 2 percent faster than rival swimwear.)

Last Tuesday, TYR's legal team at Hewitt & O'Neil filed a huge batch of papers, including the deposition of Genadijus Sokolovas, USA Swimming's former director of physiology, in which Sokolovas said that Schubert's comments were "pure speculation" without any science to back them up...."

[Link]

Ryan Lochte reported a suit failure after his 200 meter backstroke WR

My Way reports: Lochte got Peirsol back despite a problem with his LZR Racer. "My suit came undone after the first 50," Lochte said. "I was just trying to control my legs." [Link]

Speedo wants to sell us 10,000 - 15,000 LZRs before Christmas!

A particular "Bebop-Hipster-Marketing Assassin," (I can't tell you who because I forgot to ask.), sent me this link early this morning. It's Interview over at CNBC with the CEO of Warnaco. They have a video there too:

Darren: The U.S. Open maybe five or six years ago, Serena Williams comes out in a Puma catsuit. They put it out and it only sells 50. Yeah it was a fashion statement and yeah it got the buzz, but it only sold 50. You guys are taking pre-orders for the Speedo LZR Racer right now. It's going to come out in October.

Gromek: Hopefully early September.

Darren: OK, how many of them do you expect to sell?

Gromek: I would be disappointed if we didn't go through 10 or 15,000 pre-Christmas. [Tony: That's could be as high as five-to-eight-million-dollars.]

--•--
Warnaco not only owns Speedo which accounts for 15% of it's business, Calvin Klien is also Warnaco's B**** which accounts for 65% of it's business.

I will admit Speedo makes a damn fine product and I am going to close my mouth right now and not say anything nasty about the LZR and nor will I say anything good.

'Reuters' Ken Wills "test dives" the Speedo LZR

Ken Wills was an age group swimmer in his youth and he got to try the LZR on and swim different strokes: "... I did seem to slide through the water further and faster on the dive -- or was I being influenced by the upbeat 30-minute background presentation by Speedo officials?

Particularly on the butterfly and breast strokes the sensation was, well, buoyant.

But that wasn't really what I was feeling, insisted Jason Rance, worldwide head of Speedo International's Sports Aqualab.

"In terms of buoyancy, we tested it to make sure there is no buoyancy advantage," he said. "The suit's stabilizer helps keep the body position right so you feel you're riding higher in the water." [Link]

- • -
My opinion is that if you feel more buoyant and are riding higher on the water, then you are more buoyant. I think the public relations people don't like that word buoyant even though it is demonstrable that they are. They don't like it because FINA doesn't like it nor want it as an option.

Did you know that if you wear a sppedsuit at the Alcatraz Sharkfest, they put you in the wetsuit division?

Image comes from Science Daily with an article attached about the suit design: [Link]

'Speedo' will potentially supply over one-million dollars worth of "LZRs" to the athletes that request them at the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games!

From the Times in South Africa: "... Asked to comment, Speedo International was optimistic that all swimmers would be fitted. “Fina’s guidelines clearly state that suits must be available to all athletes,” the company said in an e-mail.

“In line with these regulations Speedo is endeavouring to make the Speedo LZR Racer available to all at the Games and, indeed, we have committed to supplying over 3000 suits to athletes at the Olympics which we believe clearly demonstrates our commitment to the sport.” [Link]

At $550-a-suit that could be as high as 1.5 million bucks if the athletes all choose full body suits. I mean, wouldn't you?

I saw two 'Nero blueseventy' suit failures today and now what I believe to be the fastest suit in the world, the 'Speedo LZR'

Bob Strand set a world record for his age group in a Nero blueseventy at the SPMA Regional Long Course Championships hosted by Conejo Simi Aquatics at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA. I don't remember his time for I was more interested in what he thought of the suit. Of course he was stoked. Results will be posted soon.

However, I saw two Nero blueseventy suits rip today in the exact same spot, a two inch tear along the seams in the upper thigh area by the gluteus maximus region

By the way, Bob Strand's suit did not fail. I learned today that if you are going to race in a Nero, be sure it is wet; less chance of tearing.

Now, as for the fastest suit in the world: I saw Erik Hockstein set a world record today in the 4x100 LCM free while wearing a Speedo LZR. It was during the opening swim of a relay in a time of 52.20. (Yes, that is blazing fast and it was fun to see.) He later swam in a Nero in the 100 free in a time 52.86.

Now I have to be fair. I did not see a TYR Tracer Light today. I was going to purchase one and wear it but scheduling factors did not permit me to make the 50 mile drive to go buy one. Also, I can't find one online yet. So I am qualifying my experience with speedsuits here. The fastest suit I have ever seen in person is the Speedo LZR. It's faster than Nike Hydra, the Nero blueseventy, former Speedo suits, former TYR speedsuits, Former Arena suits and Diana.

It is a remarkable suit but watching someone put it one on is actually stressful. Especially the zipping up part. It's like setting a mousetrap; you are afraid it will go very wrong and nail your fingers when you go to place it down on the floor.

I am seriously still looking at a TYR Tracer Light or Rise though due to the fact that the LZR has a short shelf life and the Tracer may be the only game in town in terms of quality. Now when I buy a TYR Tracer Light and if it by chance rips or tears, you will hear about it and then we all will be back to square one as to which "dope" is best.

Dara Torres had a suit malfunction in the 100m free.

I am watching the DVR replay of trials tonight and they featured a fast angle of Dara Torres post her 100 free win. She stops twirls for the crowd with the American flag and there it was: 3/4s of her zipper from the bottom up had separated exposing her back.

That's two people in the past month with Speedo LZR zipper failures. Erik Vendt in the 400 free and now Dara Torres at trials. I am going to be blunt and say this suit is CRAP! Its $550 and the quality is sketchy at best. Maybe you are going faster if you get it on but this suit isn't lasting long either.

Dealing with 'Speedo' and a 'Speedo LZR' at trials

Here is a review from Maya and Molly at US Olympic Trials. Only rich people are going to have the money and the patience for this suit.

Here is what Natalie Coughlin said to the Christian Science Monitor:

“The LZR takes about 20 minutes to put on,” said Natalie Coughlin, who won five medals at the Athens Olympics and is expected to win more in Beijing. “It’s just incredibly tight, especially around the legs. You inch it up millimeter by millimeter.”

So why deal with it? “They tell me it’s better,” she says. “So I wear it.” [Link]

'Speedo' admits paying USA Olympic Swimming Coach Mark Shubert to endorse Speedo!

TYR is suing Speedo and USA Swimming for anti-trade practices which in my opinion are so obvious and so overt it boggles my mind that the only press publications being objective about this lawsuit are coming from outside the swimming spectrum. TYR is being portrayed as the villain and Speedo the poor, innocent, innovator. See SwimNews if you don't believe me.

With that said the L.A. Times has been quite fair with this lawsuit: here are some restated quotes about TYR's management practices from Coach Mark Shubert from an L.A. Times article:

"... USA Swimming's head coach, Mark Schubert, took jabs at TYR Sport, which is suing him, USA Swimming, Warnaco Swimwear Inc. -- the parent company of Speedo -- and swimmer Erik Vendt in connection with the LZR Racer swimsuit. The antitrust lawsuit alleges that there was a conspiracy to steer swimmers to Speedo.

Schubert, who has steadfastly refused to comment on the lawsuit, Saturday took pains to compliment Nike, which has been allowing its sponsored athletes to experiment with high-tech suits from other manufacturers. He said Nike shows it wants its athletes to succeed. ..." [Link]

Now, consider this: Mark Shubert set up a quasi-demonstration of the LZR in Manchester, England at the FINA SCM Championships. The meeting was mandatory and according to the TYR lawsuit brief, some athletes felt "hard sold." If Shubert is all for swimsuit choice, then why didn't he demo all the swimsuits so they could "...experiment with high-tech suits from other manufacturers" and why did he just demo the Speedo?

Now compare his credibility as a unbiased coach and a moral authority in regards to swimsuit choice in a court filling by a Speedo exec in regards to the Speedo lawsuit. From the L.A. Times:

".... But an earlier filing, a declaration attached from Stu Isaac, a Speedo senior vice president, stated that Schubert is a paid spokesman for the company, which backs up TYR's assertion.

Now I read the Ted Stevens Act twice through today. The Stevens Act summarily created the concept of National Governing Body status. In my opinion, USA Swimming is not a business like the NFL or the NBA. Those organizations are businesses and can use their for-profit status to endorse, or forward the aims and interests of those that pay them "mad bank" to do so.

It's my interpretation that National Governing Bodies such as USA Swimming can't use their non-profit status as a for-profit engine so as to set up swimsuit monopolies for those such as Speedo or anybody else. USAS is a non-profit governing body set up by the United States Senate. What USAS overtly or covertly endorses essentially is endorsed by the auspices of the US government. It can't be done in my opinion.

Now for my tastes, the proper way for an endorsement deal to take place would be for USAS to state out loud that Speedo pays their bills and then state they are thankful for the cash but they won't say which suit is the best then I could live with that.

So, the TYR case has been moved to September 15th. How coincidental that is is after the games.

Anonymous Coach has left a new comment on your post "Longevity and quality issues with the 'Speedo LZR'..."

The comment below makes the presumption that the Speedo LZR is the fastest suit ever built. There is no scientific evidence that it is but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from Speedo employees and the numerous world records set by well paid mercenaries. (Call it the Nike effect whereas vast sums of money facilitate paid endorsements rather than emotional ones.) Now, this coach feels the LZR is the fastest suit available and he expresses hi anger at Speedo by not making the suit available to all those competing against it. Here is his comment:

"... The biggest problem with these suits is that they are not available to everyone. As a coach, I had 3 swimmers miss Olympic Trials cuts in Omaha by less than a tenth, and all were wearing TYR Tracer's or FS Pro's.

What would they have gone in the LZR?

Myself, along with my swimmers, waited at the Speedo booth each day of the meet to get an LZR, and not once did they have their respective size at any time. One could easily make the claim that those that were wearing LZR's had an advantage over those did not get one.

Stu at Speedo told me they only brought 50 suits total to the Omaha meet. FINA has a rule that is very clear; the suit MUST be available to everyone upon it's release! Obviously, Speedo is in clear violation of this rule. The LZR is available to the very few who are fortunate enough to be sponsored by Speedo, or those who are lucky enough to be at the right place (ie the Speedo booth) at the right time.

Did I mention I hate Speedo?

[No, but I will. I hate Speedo's trade practices and how they do business; especially with you.]

The photo above is of "The Unknown Comic." I posted it as an ad hoc icon so as to represent anonymity and talent. Here is his profile on the Unknown Comic on Wikipedia: [Link]

Longevity and quality issues with the 'Speedo LZR' documented in the press!

These five instances of 'wardrobe malfunctions' are what I culled from numerous articles about the LZR. Note each suit failure is in regards to quality, longevity, and fragility. In the photo on the left, the LZR material looks so thin that you can almost see Michael Phelps chest hairs through it when enough light is present. Also note that the failures below are the ones we are hearing about. I wonder how many we haven't heard:

Nicole Jeffrey of The Australin, quotes Leisel Jones regarding her Speedo LZR taking in water during a 200m breaststroke event at a short course meet in Canberra, Australia: "...They stretch after about three wears," she said. "I really wanted to swim fast and I prepared well. I felt quite good but the suit filling with water didn't help me much. It makes you pretty fatigued, dragging the water along."I was happy that I swam only a second off my best. And I've only had three weeks of training (since the Olympic trials) so fitness is an issue." [Link]

NPR Day to Day: Brent Rutemiller confirms that the Speedo LZR will only last a handful of races. His exact quote: "The suit itself only lasts for 6 to 12 wears. Michael Phelps could theoretically go through 3 or 4 swim suits at 500 a pop at the Olympics. ..." Here is a link to an audio of that NPR, Day to Day interview: [Link]

Amy Shipley of the Washington Post: "... Three times since the suit was released this year, the drawstring in the waistband has ripped, according to Phelps's coach Bob Bowman

The most inconvenient tear occurred Friday, throwing Phelps's pre-race preparation into arrears. Moments before filing out for his race, he was sprinting across the complex to the Speedo tent to get a new suit -- but not the LZR. He wanted nothing further to do with fragile drawstrings. (He grabbed an older model FS-Pro instead.)

"It was very upsetting to him," said Jon Urbanchek, the assistant coach at the University of Michigan's Team Wolverine, where Phelps trains. "He will have to learn to control that. It was a good learning experience. He will have to have a Plan B, Plan C . . . What if it happens at the Olympics?"

Said Bowman: "By the time he got [back with the new suit], he was absolutely fuming. At that point, I knew the swim was somewhat compromised. ..." [Link]

From the Daily Telegraph: "... [Eamon] Sullivan's girlfriend Stephanie Rice, meanwhile, learned a valuable lesson when the 200 and 400m individual medley world record holder suffered a costume malfunction in the change rooms before the start of the 100m butterfly heats. ...

Things didn't go so smoothly for Rice, who split her Speedo LZR suit and did not have a spare suit in her kit bag. The 19-year-old had to resort to her Speedo nylon suit and missed the final with a time of 1:01.47 to place fourth, having to settle for a swim in the night's B final. ..." [Link]

From Hansen Sports Media: "MONTE CARLO, June 8, 2008: Twenty-four hours after Stephanie Rice’s suit mishap in Rome, prospective Olympic breaststroke medalist Tarnee White suffered a similar fate in the opening Mare Nostrum Swim Meet in Monaco today – before joining Australia's latest list of international record breakers.

World ranked number two White, showed all the composure that makes her a seasoned veteran, to overcome a suit malfunction of her own before claiming gold and a meet record on the first of the two days of the Monaco meet.

White’s zipper split apart just before the start of the 50 metres breaststroke heats, a day after Rice split her Speedo LZR suit before the heats of the 100m butterfly. [Link]

Photo comes from the "I love Sports" blog: [Link]

An "anonymous" comment regarding "Textile World" delivering its "Fabric of the Month" award to the Speedo is well worth a post!

I will be putting Textile World on my radar especially after reading this comment regarding the Speedo LZR material and it's mention of other materials out on the horizon, I feel Textile World is a worthy read since new fabric materials are at the forefront of our sport.

The image at the right features an athlete wearing a new material called Holofiber as mentioned in the below comment.

"... Tony, thanks for reading Textile World! I would, however, have to disagree. [Regarding my belief that the plasma process merged the fibers of the LZR into a solid state.]

The [LZR] fabric, as stated in Janet’s article, is a tightly woven 2-way stretch fabric. I found that unusual, because knit structures are much more common in swimwear. There is no doubt this is a highly engineered system. The fact that it is a woven seems to let the garment designer control where and in what directions the stretch is applied there by compressing certain parts of the swimmer’s anatomy.

Plasma doesn’t melt or merge anything; it changes the surface properties of the fabric, in this case making the fabric more water-repellent. Plasma is thought to be a more eco-friendly way of treating the fabric because a more traditional method would use water-repellent chemicals, like Scotchgaurd or Teflon, that are applied to the fabric for a similar result. The plasma treatment is dry, no chemicals, no effluent, etc.

I can see why your sport may be concerned about the leap these garments take. Competitive swimmers have gone from wearing high-coverage wool or cotton garments to wearing as little as possible, and now to wearing highly engineered garments that cover the majority of the swimmer’s body. With the way technology is changing, I am sure the next generation of garments will make you questions things further. But that is just the beginning. There are technologies at the fiber level, not used in this garment, like Holofiber from Hologenix LLC, that are said to raise the oxygen level in the wearer’s blood, this can help in training and in recovery after training or competing. It also is said to help with jet lag or help people with circulation problems. ..."

Could Holofiber be the next swimsuit material? Here is a link to the Hologenix LLC site: [Link]

Brendan Hansen is in the "lab" and he is wearing every manufacturers' suit!

Look at all that water in Brendan Hansen's hands. It looks just like cracked ice.

Here is Lisa Dillman from the L.A. Times and this article is Gold! So much info about Santa Clara but I m going to focus on this revealing fact: Nike has given Brendan Hansen permission to experiment with any suit he wants. At Santa Clara he wore a Lzr, his next race a TYR.

Snippets from the L.A. Times as to why: "... So Hansen gave Speedo a test run in the final of the 200 breaststroke, which he won in 2 minutes 10.62 seconds. Peirsol did his experimenting under quieter circumstances. "I'm not going to lie to you, I did wear something this morning," Peirsol said. ..."

"... Hansen said Sunday he plans to also test TYR's high-tech offering. Peirsol said he would consider it too. ..."

"We want to exhaust every possible option that we have," Hansen said. "If I get on the blocks and if I swim against somebody with a TYR suit, I know I've worn that, and I know what that feels like. I don't want there to be any guesswork at all about what my competitors are wearing. ..."

". . . I'm really pleased with the Nike suit I wore in the 100, so that's up there. . . . That one feels most comfortable. The one I wore tonight worked really good as well. I don't want you to think that my time had anything to do with the suit that I'm wearing."

"... Hansen wants the suit issue off the table in the next two to three weeks. "I'll have to sit down and write down on a piece of paper which one I like better, which one is more comfortable," he said. "I don't want to be telling you guys 'I don't know what I'm wearing' two days before the trials...." [Link]

Mini review of the 'Nike Hydra' speedsuit and a snippet about the 'blueseventy'

Last week I purchased a Nike Hydra from SwimOutlet.com for the UCLA Bruins Master Meet that was held today. My motive for buying the suit was this goal I have of making it into the top-10 swims in my age group for the 50 yard free. I am pretty confident that I made it in the 100, 200 and 500 free but I really want to make the list for the 50 free. The season was a bit short this year due to Nationals in Austin, Texas and the FINA Masters Swimming World Championships in Perth, Australia this month. Hence, only 36 or so swimmers in my age group competed this season in that particular race and out of those 36 swimmers I was sitting at number 10; a position on the bubble so to speak.

Consequently, I was worried some fast guys would climb out of the woodwork at this meet and bump me off the list so I figured a little "tech doping" seemed like an viable, desperate, option and so I dropped the $165 on a midnight, black, Nike Hydra.

The suit arrived in a timely manner and it fit very well. The suit is very lightweight. My Speedo Fastskin II leggings were heavier and far harder to put on. Also, I never came close to swimming a "personal best" in the Fastskins and in a fit of anger, I gave them away.

At today's meet I decided not to warm up in the Hydra but rather warm up in a TYR brief instead and swim the 50SCY race with a dry suit versus a wet one. While waiting for my race, I saw a girl wearing a blueseventy and I asked her what she thought about it and she said she too was just going to jump in and see what her first impressions would be.

When the bell rang, I leaped in and I felt fast for the first lap, on the second lap the suit didn't feel as fast but I was only .02 off my personal best for the event in a time of 26:26. The time was a bit surprising since the air temp was at least 90 degrees today and I felt like I was melting before my event. My mouth was dry, I was starting to sweat since I was wearing a midnight, black, speedsuit, a latex cap and goggles and there was little to no shade. When the bell sounded it was sheer relief to jump in.

All of the above got repeated for the 100 free as well which was held 10-minutes later yet I did well in that event too. I swam a sloppy race only squeezing in one breath on the first lap and my turnover felt like it was in slow-motion yet in the 100 free I was only .07 off my personal best, a 58.67.

What I don't like about the suit, and the woman I spoke with who was wearing the blueseventy said the exact same thing to me after her race, is that both of us have the same sort of body type whereas we both have more of an exaggerated arch in the small of backs at our lumbar region hence, when I wore the Hydra I developed an air pocket in that area which is great till you do a flip turn. Post turn, it felt a bit floppy or saturated. This young lady said the same thing about the blueseventy. The conclusion she arrived at was that the suit would be great for a triathlon and my conclusion is that the Hydra would "motor" in a 50LCM leaving me to believe that I will comfortably break 30 seconds wearing one. epilogue: $165 was an amazing value considering most sppedsuits start at $300+ range all the way up to $550 for the LZR.

What I leaned about speedsuits is that the fit is more superior than the material. Speedsuits should be tailored and not purchased off the rack.

BTW, I came second today in the 50 free thwarting four challengers but I got beat by the fifth one and I don't believe I will make the top 10 for the 50. Maybe next year.

I have films of the event coming, even a tee-shirt relay. :-)