Michael Phelps is NOT overrated

Too harsh?

Beijing's real swimming star
Over the past several decades, one Olympian's pursuit of speed has gone unmatched

MATT HARTLEY

From Friday's Globe and Mail

August 15, 2008 at 3:17 AM EDT

Michael Phelps and his quest for an unprecedented eight gold medals is the talk of the Olympics, but the superstar making the biggest splash at the Water Cube in Beijing had nabbed 42 of the 48 swimming medals through Wednesday, including 15 of the 16 golds up for grabs.

Commentators can't stop talking about its effectiveness. Its detractors accuse it of cheating. One has even alleged its presence at the Games amounts to a textbook case of “technological doping.”

The real swimming star of the Beijing Olympics isn't a swimmer at all, but a swimsuit: the Speedo Fastskin LZR Racer.

The dominance of Speedo's latest revolutionary swimsuit at the Beijing Games is no aberration.

Every few years, the British brand redesigns its competitive swimsuits, and within months, world record times begin to tumble.

Since the LZR was unveiled in February, more than 60 world records have been shattered by swimmers clad in its second-skin grip.

Although the athletes using the LZR continue to sing its praises, the creation Speedo calls “the world's fastest swimsuit” was dogged by controversy from the moment it left the starting block.

Swimsuit manufacturer TYR Sport Inc. launched an antitrust lawsuit in May against Warnaco Group Inc. – the clothing maker that owns the Speedo licence in North America – over Speedo's close connection with the U.S. national swim team. The head coach, Mark Schubert, is reported to have encouraged his swimmers to switch to the LZR or risk watching the Beijing Games at home on TV.

In June, Nike agreed to let the four athletes it had signed to sponsorship deals use the Speedo suits in Beijing after the swimmers experimented with the LZR at the U.S. national championships.

It's no surprise that members of Canada's swim team also wear the LZR suit, with the team hoping to avoid being shut out from podium appearances for a second straight Olympics.

In amateur athletics, where a hundredth of a second can mean the difference between securing the lucrative sponsorship deals that come with a gold medal and the obscurity of being an also-ran, it's no surprise that the world's top swimmers are looking at Mr. Phelps's suit and deciding they want one of their own, said Loren Chiu, an associate professor of biomechanics at the University of Alberta.

“The marketing people for these companies are smart and they go after the top athletes, the gold medalists,” he said. “So someone who is finishing lower in the rankings, if they see the gold medalist wearing this new suit, they are going to want to try it out as well.”

To design the LZR, Speedo enlisted the help of NASA scientists to sculpt the company's Pulse material into a shark-like second skin that reduces the drag on a human body in the water by as much as 10 per cent. Speedo created 3-D scans of more than 400 of the world's top swimmers in an effort to determine the shape of their bodies and how best to improve their aquatic movements.

The LZR – which is expected to be made available to the general public in the fall with a price tag of about $550 (U.S.) – follows Speedo's Fastskin full-body swimsuit designs, which began appearing on pool decks in 2000. To design this new breed of swimsuits, Speedo “went underwater,” Mr. Chiu said.

“They looked at fish and sharks and tried to recreate a surface that is similar to what they would have on their skin,” he said. “It's similar to the non-stick frying pans you use to cook your eggs. If you have a smooth surface, then instead of water sticking to the suit, which would cause friction, it slides along it. With less friction, the athlete then is able to move faster.”

Speedo says the corset-like design of the suit helps streamline a swimmer's body while improving oxygen intake by as much as 5 per cent. It's also ultrasonically welded together, instead of using stitches, to make it completely seamless, further reducing drag. The LZR suits are so snug it can take an athlete 20 to 30 minutes just to wriggle into one. It's so technically advanced, it's on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of its Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit.

Speedo swimsuits were first developed by Alexander MacRae, a Scotsman who emigrated to Australia in 1910. The Speedo brand was born in 1928 after a staff member coined the slogan “Speed on in your Speedos” to describe the company's new Racerback swimsuit line.

The London, England-based Pentland Group took ownership of Speedo in the 1990s.

In 1970, Speedo created the first suits made from nylon/elastane, which remains the most common material used in swimwear. Two years later, Mark Spitz wore a Speedo suit while he captured seven Olympic gold medals.

Speedo has promised Mr. Phelps a $1-million bonus if he is able to match Mr. Spitz's record. It will be money well spent for Speedo, since Mr. Phelps is becoming known as the Tiger Woods of swimming and will soon be able to command Tiger-like endorsement dollars, said Alan Middleton, a marketing professor with the Schulich School of Business at York University.

“He will literally have the sponsors queuing up,” he said.