Evolution of the Speedo "Tech Suit"

I am doing a project for somebody which I hope all of you will see in February 2010 and I needed to see a progression of of Olympic swimsuits from 1992 forward.

Leave it to Playboy to do a an entire progression of Speedo swimsuits from 1988-2008. I figured many of you would like to see the progression and how we will move "forward to the past" so I am linking to it.

Warning: the link below goes directly to the Playboy but I posted 4-shots from the gallery above and I put the dates in the bottom left-hand-corner. Click on the image to enlarge it or go directly to the gallery:

[Link]

Consequently, 2010 will be the new 1996 and I expect USA Swimming membership membership will retrograde too.

Clay Evans: SCAQ Founder and Olympian, was quoted in the 'Wall Street Journal' today regarding tech suits!

Clay Evans; (SCAQ founder and Olympian), was quoted in the Wall Street Journal regarding his antipathy towards tech suits!

From WSJ.com:

Competition was fierce at a July swimming meet in Thousand Oaks, Calif. At the starting buzzer, Clay Evans, 56 years old, dived into the pool, dressed in a get-up like the one he wore in the 1976 Olympics: a flimsy nylon Speedo bikini.

[He didn't wear goggles either - tony]

It took less than 2½ minutes for the Los Angeles athlete to fall hopelessly behind the times.

Michael Mann of Centennial, Colo., flew past his opponents, swaddled shoulder-to-ankle in a black neoprene bodysuit. Mr. Mann, 55, won the 400-meter individual medley race and set a world record for his age group, 55 to 59. Mr. Mann set new world marks in the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle while Mr. Evans steamed. ..."

[Link]

I was there, I swam with him and just to explain he's suit position further... he's wrong! ;-)

UPDATE: I am going to add some thoughts and criticisms here. Being The Wall Street Journal, I am very surprised that the business end of tech suits was not discussed. There was a lot of money connected to tech suits and I would like to have read about the the business aftermath.

Another glaring point is that there was no rebuttal argument as to why suits should stay. When I was interviewed, the author was having problems finding swimmers who were passionately negative or positive about tech suits for most swimmers were sanguine; so I gave the writer Clay's phone number.

Another issue: As a USMS swimmer, I want to vote those people out that in my estimation did not have my best interests or the sport's best interests in mind when they suggested tech suits in masters swimming should conform to the FINA international standard.

Now, with that said, I don't want to get on an airplane and fly somewhere to go vote either. I think the USMS voting policy should be a membership vote by way of a mail-in ballot not a delegate vote.

Multi-billion dollar companies allow tiny shareholders who may only control 10-shares of stock or less out of tens-of-millions of shares to vote on serious issues like mergers, acquisitions, and board members, The USMS should do the same. A "blow card" could easily be inserted into the USMS magazine and the average USMS member could put on a stamp to mail it back.

If that is too complicated, There is always Internet voting through Club Assistant.

UPDATE II: Q-Swim sent me this in regards to "cheating" as defined in the article:

It would be useful if the writers on the subject, and the opinionated commentary, would keep in mind the definition of "cheating": Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others, ^[1] Cheating implies the breaking of rules.

1) There is no trickery,
2) There is no deception, i.e., the suits are visually observable,
3) The rules - currently - allow the use of the suits
4) Even Tiger uses a wood that is more metal than wood with a head twice the size of the woods Ben Hogan used; is he cheating?

'Sydney Morning Herald' article: Murray Rose rants against FINA and tech-suits but offers a novel solution!

Though an eleven-paragraph, tech-suit, rant that suggests potential boycotts, hurls insults at FINA, and associates tech-suits with East Germans, the final paragraph offers a "suitable solution" which FINA should consider:

From the SMH.com

''What you have to do then is draw the line and decide if it's going to be a technology-based sport or it isn't. Or, you could say there will be two sports, with two sets of records and two codes.''

[Link]

That comment has pro-league written all over it. Perhaps FINA... Hmmmm.

About Murray Rose: Rose is a two-time Olympian with 3-gold medals in Melbourne 1956 in the 400-meter, 1500-meter and the 4x200 meter relay. In Tokyo four-years later he scored a gold, silver and a bronze in the same events.

He is the patron of the Australian charity The Rainbow Club which teaches disabled children how to swim.

Best of all, he swam for the University of Southern California here in Los Angeles.

The above illustration of Murray Rose was a Sports Illustrated cover from 1961 and can been seen here at the SI Vault: [Link]

Final thoughts on the FINA World Cup in Durban 2009!

Short course meters venue: In my opinion, short course meters racing is the most entertaining way to watch a swim race. Long course becomes to repetitive for the field of swimmers separates to quickly especially during longer events and short course yards mostly takes place underwater.

SCM seemingly has more balance. The distance is long enough so you can appreciate the stroke, the walls are there to keep the race close and even the dive has greater significance.

Peter Marshall is unstoppable when he has walls: He set multiple world records in the 50-back last until being trumped by Randall Bal but now he sets a new one.

Swimsuits: It's all Adidas and Arena. Even Peter Marshall, who was not allowed to wear TYR's possible equal to both of these brands still wore a TYR cap but I believe he wore an Adidas.

Therese Alshammar eyes: Those blue/green eyes depending on the lighting are either perfectly symmetrical or she wears makeup for each race. Even in a pixelated video at Universal Sports the blueness or her eyes overwhelms even the teal color of the water.

Jessica Hardy: Hell-fast!

Tech suits: I enjoyed every second of them. The technology, the speed, the growth they created for swimming.

Korean Competition swimsuit patterns - Who will be the new number one?

First, I have to commend the Koreans for not being so boring with their swimwear designs and for taking chances.

Though some of these suits are quite "horsey" or a bit "loud" to my cultural tastes, these silkscreen designs technically rival in execution those t-shirt designs by Christian Audigier, Affliction, or whatever trendy t-shirt you see selling on Melrose or Ventura Blvd. these days.

Executing ornate silkscreen apparel designs such as you see to the right, and to make it symmetrical so that it lines up nicely from one edge of the pattern to the other is really hard to do and these companies are apparently very good at it.

The average suit is made of "80/20" as they say in the garment industry. I recently just learned what that means; It is slang for 80%-nylon, 20%-Lycra and it is really cheap to purchase.

The retail price for 80/20 is $8.00 a square meter. It's probably $3.00 a square meter or less if you buy in bulk. (Does somebody know the exact bulk rate?)

This Nylon/Lycra fabric will be the "standard issue" material for competition swimsuits in 2010. In some cases a swimsuit company may treat their jammers or briefs with Teflon but Teflon breaks down in chlorine and the only suits that will benefit from this value added treatment will be the ladies swimsuits since they obviously utilize more surface material then the men.

With the same fabric as a de facto standard, will any suit be faster than any other? I say no! Consequently, I suspect it will price point, the artwork and durability of the suits that will determine who the new leaders will be. Therefore, when it comes to price point, access to Asian garment districts in Cambodia and Vietnam, and the courage to take chances with a silkscreen printer, who is to say that the Koreans are not in the game now?

I think the industry has been turned upside down and shaken violently by FINA and their silly tech-suit regulations. I think there is no swimsuit leader in competitive swimming at the moment. Perhaps that is why Nike is back in the swimsuit business because the market has been sent back in time to 1980?

Ironically enough, it is Speedo that got hurt the most by this upheaval for several reasons: They have no presence in the triathlon world which means no tech-suit offering, wetsuit offering, and other gear. They have lost there technological foothold as well since a mandated pattern and fabric specification has been determined for all by FINA. They are paying a fortune for world class athletes to help them sell swimsuits that cost $30-to-$75 each versus $150-to-$550 for a tech-suit.

The featured suit above and to the right comes from a company called Silverspin who sells their product through Aqus.kr: [Link]

The USMS sends me an ominous letter foreshadowing the end of tech-suits!

Essentially it says: Please come to our meets and wear tech-suits. Please buy tech-suits from our sponsors; but just so you know, in less than 11-weeks from now you probably won't be able to wear tech-suits at USMS sanctioned events...

From the USMS:

Dear Tony ,

The FINA Masters Committee has recommended that the FINA Bureau, meeting in mid-January, approve its recommendation that Masters swimmers be governed by the same swimsuit rules as the elite pool swimmers. If the Bureau approves the committee's recommendation, it is anticipated it would go into effect after the Bureau meeting. If this recommendation becomes policy with the FINA Bureau, USMS will implement it for our sanctioned swim meets.

For the time being and until the FINA Bureau issues its policy for Masters, the June 1, 2009 ruling that allowed technical suits in USMS swim meets is still in effect. If you choose to compete in a USA Swimming sanctioned meet, you must follow USA Swimming rules. If you would like more information on purchasing technical suits, you may contact your swimsuit dealer or any of the following:

bluesevety, TYR, Speedo, Finis

After reading this letter two more times through, I decided to go for a bike ride at my local bike path.

I was interviewed by the 'Wall Street Journal' today!

I got a phone call today from a writer with the Wall Street Journal asking me about my viewpoints on the potential tech suit ban in US Masters Swimming.

One question that came up was what will I do if a tech-suit ban takes effect at the Masters level in January? I replied that I would continue to wear my tech-suit but if I am not able to step up to the blocks and at least get a time before being DQed, I would not compete in the USMS in 2010.

I went on to say that there are open water-events I can do like the Alcatraz Sharkfest, there was the LMU fund-raiser for the womens team, that sprint triathlons had a nice ring to it, and I would even stage my own swim meet. (Something I was going to do at the USMS level through SCAQ but now that it is probably unlikely.)

If I am quoted, I will let you know when it comes out.

Tech suits will be allowed in open water races - Watch that segment of our sport grow!

I smell a bit of rationality emanating from the FINA "ivory towers."

From a bluesevety press release:

Swimming record breaker welcomes FINA suit news

Swimmers, including Channel World Record holder Petar Stoychev, have welcomed news that body suits will be allowed in open water events next year. Stoychev holds a key position on the FINA athletes commission and is calling on the world governing body to secure the safety of athletes and development of the sport by ensuring that technical body suits remain in the sport for the future.

Body suits, such as the blueseventy Nero 10k, have been outlawed for pool swimming, but FINA has confirmed that the same rules will not apply to open water swimming.

The FINA press office said: “The new rules relating to swimwear do not apply to open water. They apply to swimming.” However, the types of fabrics to be permitted are yet to be determined.

Stoychev commented: “At every technical meeting prior to a race FINA officials aways say that the health of the swimmers is the most important thing. Full body suits protect the skin from sunburn and dangerous jellyfish. I was hospitalized after a sting in China in 2002 and it is much safer when the skin is covered by a suit.”

“There are no world records in open water. We don’t race against time, just against each other, so there are not the same considerations as in the pool. I agree that Channel swimming is different, it’s right that technical suits are not allowed, but we need them on other races for the future of the sport.”

Introduced to the Olympics for the first time in Beijing, open water swimming has seen a massive boom in popularity since. However, for the sport to progress the use of bodysuits and wetsuits is paramount.

Stoychev also feels strongly that commercial involvement in the sport is vital. He said: “Our sport was in the Olympics for the first time in Beijing and I feel it’s important that we have more opportunities for commercial involvement in order to progress. It is nice to have companies like blueseventy produce suits specifically for open water.”

The Nero 10k suit is a specific open water suit, and was worn by Olympic Champion, Maarten vd Weijden in Beijing last year and by medal winners in World Championships in Rome.

Van der Weijden commented: “The swimwear debate is particularly poignant at age group level, where the sport needs to attract novices. And at elite level races vary in terms of temperature as well as actual water conditions, I’m pleased this is being taken into account rather than just apply the same rules that apply for the pool.”

With events such as this weekend’s Great North Swim attracting thousands of competitors, swimming has a fantastic opportunity to increase participation and interest in the sport. Access to technical swimwear, and wetsuits for beginners, can only help ensure that more people feel confident to dive in to open water.

Steve Nicholls from blueseventy commented: “We are pleased that body suits will remain in the sport of open water swimming. It’s the right move to bring even greater numbers to open water swimming and increase overall participation in swimming.”