Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Speedier Speedos

Can a swimsuit make you go faster in the water? Will athletes be willing to pay more than $500 for one? Speedo is betting that the answer to both questions is “yes”. Its new high-tech Speedo LZR Racer is designed to do for swimming what titanium golf clubs and carbon composite rackets did for golf and tennis, respectively. And it might do just that!

The new suit has no stitching; the parts are all bonded ultrasonically. Low-drag panels are incorporated into the nearly complete body suit to compress the swimmer’s body. According to the company, the new suits have 5% less drag than older models. Critics argue that a suit doesn’t make a world-class swimmer, and of course on one level they’re right. On the other hand, in the past two months 14 new world records have been set in swimming – 13 of them in the LZR suit.

Expect to see the new suit all over the Olympics swimming competitions this summer.

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