Swimming: Science sank athleticism

Michael Phelps in the Olympic-banned LZR Racer.

At what point does the impact of science in sport become unethical? We all know performance- enhancing drugs cross the line but what about technological improvements in clothing or equipment?

These questions have been hotly debated in swimming recently.

Until the 2000 Sydney Olympics, male swimmers had usually worn briefs, while women had worn a one-piece. The introduction of full-body suits changed things. Swimwear manufacturers tried to outdo each other in a series of technological developments the Washington Post called a sporting "arms race".

FINA, world swimming's governing body, scrambled to keep up.

The first suit banned was TYR's Aqua Shift which used tripwires wound around the torso to reduce drag by changing the way water flowed over a swimmer's body. The tripwire mechanism was banned soon after the 2004 Athens Olympics because it worked "too well".

In the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Speedo joined forces with NASA to create the ultimate item of science couture, the LZR Racer, which set in motion an unprecedented assault on the sport's record books. More than 130 world records fell within 17 months of the LZR's emergence on the market.

The LZR was made from a combination of nylon estane fabric and polyurethane panels.
These materials were selected after tests that included wind-tunnel analyses, computational fluid dynamics assessments, and flume testing, all of which measured drag, buoyancy and speed. According to NASA, swimmers and space shuttles share many physical similarities as they move through elements, the main one being viscous drag, or "the force of friction that slows down a moving object through a substance".

NASA scientist Stephen Wilkinson said in swimming, as with aircraft flight, "a thin boundary layer or reduced velocity fluid surrounds the moving body". Speedo's studies showed that viscous drag accounted for around 25 per cent of total retarding force on a swimmer.

To combat this, Speedo created the first "fully bonded, full-body swimsuit with ultrasonically welded seams". The suit also had a corset-like device called core stabiliser.
When swimmers tire, they lose their shape in the water by dipping their lower backs. Water pools in the dip between the back and buttocks, causing drag. The LZR had a bonded layer of elastic around the belly and back that helped swimmers maintain their form.

Things came to a head at the 2009 world championships in Rome, where 11 world records tumbled in the first two days of competition.

FINA responded by banning all body-length swimsuits. Swimmers are now allowed to wear only 'jammers', which are waist-to-knee in length for men and shoulder-to-knee for women. Since then, swimmers have generally slowed. It's telling that, of the 20 long-course world records maintained by FINA, 15 were set in the 2008-09 LZR era.

But the question remains - what was so wrong with the LZR? Dave Salo, head coach of the University of Southern California swimming team, answered this when he said the suit "devalued athleticism".

"A lot of kids who aren't in very good shape can put on one of these suits and be like streamlined seals," he said. It's a compelling point.