LZR Racer starts tidal wave of controversey in competitive swimming

          Although swimming may not be at the centerstage of sports in this country, once every four years, swimming takes the country by storm at the Olympic Games. This past summer Olympics in Beijing, a feat was completed that has never been accomplished in the history of the Olympics. Michael Phelps, a swimmer from Baltimore, won eight gold medals competiting in five individual events, and three relays. The one difference from this Olympics that was like no other was the introduction of new technology in the swim suits that the swimmers were participating in. Speedo has always been at the top of the line for competitive swimwear, and this year was no difference. The LZR Racer was introduced right before the games, and it had a huge impact. Simply put, 94% of the medals were won wearing these new "supersuits," and 23 of 25 world records were broken in the LZR. These are astonishing numbers to try and wrap your head around. Never has a suit been so dominant in the amount of success swimmers get from it. This raises the question, why? The LZR is composed of a light-weight woven fabric, and has polyurethane panels that are strategically placed on certain parts of the suit. Speedo even went to NASA for help, in which they used fluid flow analysis to make the suit as efficient as possible. Studies showed that the suit allowed swimmers to be 5% more efficient with their oxygen intake, which is the most important aspect of swimming. The suit was also the first suit to ever not have seams, with the suit being litterally "lazered" together. With the suit passing all the FINA regulation tests, everything seemed to be fine.
          Fast-foward to the 2009 World Championships. Michael Phelps had been caught smoking marijuana in a picture, and he had taken a long break from his sport. In a shocking turn of events, Phelps lost one of his signature races, the 200 free, to a virtually unknown swimmer from Germany named Paul Biedermann. Biedermann smashed Phelps world record in beating Phelps by over a second. Shock ran through the swimming world, as people questioned how this was possible. Phelps coach, Bob Bowman, had an answer. He claimed that Biedermann's suit was basically cheating and enabled him to beat Phelps. What Bowman was talking about was the new line of suits from European companies, most notably Jakked and Arena. Both companies released suits right before world championships that were composed of all polyutherane. Polyutherane is an extremely buoyant material, which many say makes swimmers sit higher in the water, thus making them go faster. After the meet, FINA took action. Their new rules stated that "suits must be made of only "textile fabrics." They can be natural or synthetic yarns that can be weaved, knit or braided to make the suit's material." There are also new buoyancy and absorbency standards, in addition to the fact that males can no longer wear suits that go past the navel or knees, and females can no longer wear suits that go past the shoulders or knees. These new rule changes were extremely important for the sport, and set a lot of companies back. Speedo is still challenging the ruling that the LZR is illegal.