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.

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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 'TYR Tracer Titan' - The first suit to use 'Yamamoto SCS-Fabric BRS MARK-III' fabric!

Has the Tracer Rise been replaced by a far superior version? Most likely for the subhead on the Tracer Titan product sheet makes it clear that they are using the next generation of hydrophobic fabric coming out of the Yamamoto Corporation, a company that provides Yamamoto SCS fabric for such speedsuits as the blueseventy, Rocket Science and the Jaked suit.

The Yamamoto SCS-Fabric BRS MARK-III has 34% less drag than the previous SCS Fabric, is a much thinner fabric, absorbs 0.5% less water, and TYR has it first. I am unclear if the fabric will be available to other suit makers.

I find this very exciting news for their former suit, the Tracer Rise, was setting world records for the past six months and now they have "leapfrogged" that technology with a suit that on paper looks even better! I can't wait to pour myself into one of these.

Check out this comment from their product sheet that clearly suggests that latic acid can be "dampened?"

The flexible Titanium alloy layer provides optimal thermoregulation which aids in the reduction of lactic acid in the blood, optimizing muscle performance. Titanium is recognized for its high strength-to-weight ratio which allows the material to contour to the natural shape of each athlete, significantly reducing stress and fatigue on the muscles.

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Some thoughts: I think the phrase, thermoregulation, is a fancy way of saying it will keep you warm. Well, the suit definitely looks sexy and TYR has proven in numerous meets these past six-months that their suits set world records too. I want to see this one in action for I like the cut, the color and I want one for SCY Nationals!

I have no clue when they are for sale.

The suit will be available at the NCAA level and I was told by TYR PR that they are shipping off tons of these 'babies' to colleges everywhere so as to make them available per the FINA rule regarding suit availability.

Here is a snippet from an NCAA memo release from CollegeSwimming.com:

In light of the recent proliferation of new models and designs of technical swimsuits, international bodies have begun discussions on implementing scientific measures to be used for approving swimsuits for competition. In mid-January, FINA announced it was temporarily halting the intake of approval requests from manufacturers designing new swimsuits. As a result, the committees have been forced to reevaluate using FINA’s list as the resource for approving swimsuits for intercollegiate competition.

Since the NCAA does not currently have the capability to test swimsuits, and since there seemingly is no discernible justification for treating any one technical suit differently from any other for purposes of use at intercollegiate competition, the committees have decided to permit all technical swimsuits for all 2009 NCAA swimming and diving championships.

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The biggest question here is if the fabric is stronger than the previous Yamamoto SCS fabric and is it elastic enough to avoid suit malfunctions? I will catalog any failures I see.