'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.” ..."

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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

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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. ..."

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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...."

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TYR has seemingly stop selling the male full body 'Aqua Shift' suits

Dang it, I wanted one for Christmas! I also felt that the TYR trip wire technology and the science behind it made the TYR Aqua Shift the fastest suit ever made. At the TYR website they are still selling the rest of the Aqua Shift line but not the full body suit. [Link]

From Wikipedia: The research for the TYR Aqua Shift was done by the University at Buffalo, where it was supervised by senior professors of physiology and biomechanical engineering. TYR worked with CRESE; [They do wok for the military], to design a highly-effective hydrodynamic suit.

Wave drag is one of the forms of drag created by swimmers, the others being pressure drag and friction drag. Wave drag is created by every movement a swimmer makes in the water. The more wave drag is created, the more energy a swimmer must put out to make progress through the water. Therefore, anything that reduces wave drag will theoretically make it easier for a swimmer to swim faster. The Aqua shift suit is claimed to reduce wave drag by as much as 53%, according to the research done by TYR. Their research also claims that the suit reduces drag overall by as much as 10% and pressure drag by 18%.