Recent improvements in performances are mainly due to the athletes’ equipment.
Restrictions have been taken in some sports on the use of this new kit; that
way, improved results will be reached due to the efforts of the athletes, not because
of the high tech gear.
Swimmers’ wetsuits in particular have had radical improvements made to
them. On 12th February 2008,
just before the Olympics in Beijing, Speedo put its new competitive swimsuit on
sale: the LZR Racer, which FINA approved. Thanks to NASA and the Australian
Institute of Sport, Speedo designed the LZR Racer as the first fully “ultrasonically
welded” swimsuit. Ultrasonic welding is a fast and inexpensive assembly
technique for materials like plastic. It reduces the muscle oscillation and
vibration of the skin of the swimmer during his race. Experiments show that
this swimsuit decreases by 5% the drag of the swimmer and his oxygen
consumption. This obviously results in improved performance time: a year after
the release of this swimsuit, 108 world records were broken (e.g. the Frenchman
Alain Bernard beat the world 100m and 50m freestyle records wearing the LZR at
the European Championships in Eindhoven). Almost all the swimmers wore the LZR
Racer during the Olympics Game in 2008...
Swimsuits that are completely covered in polyurethane appeared in 2009; these
give the swimmer better flotation and also decrease water resistance. This
organic molecule is a urethane polymer. Urethane is characterized by the
reaction of an iso-cyanate and an alcohol molecule.
The Jacked is the swimsuit which has overtaken the LZR Racer’s ability to
improve the swimmer’s technique. It is composed of polyurethane while the LZR
Racer is just ultrasonically welded. Using Jaked, French swimmer Frederick
Bousquet, swam in less than 21 seconds the 50 m freestyle in April 2009 at the
French Championship.
In light of the incredible results of the new swimsuits, a lot of
swimmers used the polyurethane swimsuits such as the Jacked and Arena x-glide
during the 2009 world championships, in Rome ; the result was that a lot of
records were easily broken thanks to those revolutionary swimsuits. The Jaked combination
created controversy when it appeared. Bob Bowman, the coach of Michael Phelps
(greatest swimming champion of all time) declared : "It
took me five years to get Michael from 1:46 to 1:42 on 200m freestyle, and this
guy has done it in 11 months (talking about German swimmer Paul Bidermann who beat
the world 200m freestyle record). That's an amazing training performance. I'd
like to know how to do that…"
Following the 2009 world championships, FINA decided to ban integral
swimsuits. Since then, swimmers, at all levels, are only allowed to wear
non-polyurethane jammers during competitions. The controversy continues however;
recently, an Arena jammer swimsuit was also banned…
Article by Antoine Jourdet, Massillon
Article by Antoine Jourdet, Massillon
