Competitive swimmers now wear special swimsuits (bodyskins) including partial and full bodysuits, racerback styles, jammers, and racing briefs to assist their glide through the water and gain speed advantages. This is some of the most technically advanced swimwear ever made, using unique fabrics that fit like a second skin for minimal drag and turbulence around the body.

Controversy

There has been some controversy over the new designs, but suits have been moving towards covering more skin for several years. The problem is that these new suits may offer a significant advantage to the wearer (Rushall, 1999), which appears to be against the rules. The full body suit is now an accepted item in the Olympics. Records are broken by athletes in suits from the turn of the century; the 21st century.

New Suits Trigger More Controversy

New performance-boosting suits have triggered a row at the French Championships and later in Rome, more akin to the world of motorsports.

At the heart of the controversy is the Italian-manufactured Jaked suit. This suit is totally covered with polyurethane to aid buoyancy while the old suits only had polyurethane plates.

However Pierre Roger, hot favourite in the 200 metres backstroke, failed to qualify for this year's Rome world championships when he finished fifth in the final after his Jaked suit cracked at the start.

Other manufacturers are trying to catch up with Jaked. Arena have just developed a similar outfit that helped Olympic champion Alain Bernard set a 100 freestyle world record of 46.94 seconds at the Montpelier French Championships 2009 semi-finals.

While the Jaked suit has already been ratified by FINA, Arena's outfit has yet to be approved. However, when later in Rome many speed records were broken in these new suits, FINA started talking about a ban. That would mean that innovation would be halted and everyone swims in tiny briefs for men or one piece suits for the women. Let's it won't come to this.

Less Drag

If the suit material offers less drag than skin, then it should cover most of the skin. Speedo and Adidas (as do other manufacturers) claim their material offers less drag. Another example of material that is "slicker than skin" is Arena's "X-Flat" material, 4.8% lower in drag compared to your skin. Covering more skin started with a men's suit that covered the torso, then evolved into the longer leg suit with the torso cover option.

Muscle Compression

They also offer compression, allowing the muscles to work more efficiently. Now, it looks like either a long-leg suit or full body suit is at the cutting edge. The Teflon finished Adidas "Equipment Fullbody" suit is designed to give increased power and stroke accuracy while decreasing muscle fatigue and drag due to its compression fabric.

Fabrics

Nylon and Lycra spandex with Teflon are mainly used. Lycra Power materials increase speed and endurance by using compression. This compression holds the body better in the water, stimulates skin receptors for a more accurate, efficient swim stroke and allows for faster recovery times due to increased blood circulation. The "Second Skin Fit" provides maximum flexibility and freedom of movement by preventing water from penetrating at the neck, wrists and ankles, thus reducing water retention. Strategically placed flatlock seams reduce water drag and add comfort.

Some fabric stretching occurs with each wearing. Swimmers are advised to wear the suits a few times at practice, to produce some accommodating stretch, before using them in races.

The fabric of some suits mimics the rough shark denticles to reduce drag in key areas of the body and compresses the body to stop skin vibration and muscle oscillation to save energy and reduce drag.

Minor difficulties with these suits may occur at the start as it could be harder to bend down and assume a good starting position. At turns the degree of hip flexion could be reduced a little bit causing turns to be slightly slower than when full flexion is accommodated. But this effect is minimal and will soon disappear with the introduction of new fabrics.

A cross-sectional comparison between the buoyancy, passive and net active drag force characteristics of full-length, Fastskin swimsuits with that of standard swimsuits was completed with nine Open National level swimmers (5 males and 4 females).

Subjects were weighed in a hydrostatic tank and then towed via a mechanical winch on the surface and 0.4 m deep at 1.6, 2.2 and 2.8 m/s. The subjects performed a prone streamlined glide and maximum effort flutter kick at each towing velocity and depth. Hydrostatic weight differences between swimsuit types were not significant (p> 0.05.)

Fastskin passive drag values were significantly less than normal swimsuits during surface towing at 1.6 and 2.8 m/s: and at 0.4 m deep towing at 1.6, 2.2 and 2.8 m/s. Net active drag force values also were lower for the Fastskin suits when compared with those of normal swimsuits and a significant difference existed for surface towing at all three velocities of 1.6, 2.2 and 2.8 m/s.

The full-length, Fastskin swimsuits created less total hydrodynamic resistance than normal swimsuits while providing no additional buoyancy benefits.

PMID: 12188083 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]