GERMANY: SWIMMING - Germany's Olympic swimmers have morale sapped by a rival swim suit

Record ID: 210533

  • Title: GERMANY: SWIMMING - Germany's Olympic swimmers have morale sapped by a rival swim suit
  • Date: 25th April 2008
  • Summary: (S4) (FILE - NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA) (FILE 2008) (REUTERS) AMERICAN SWIMMER MICHAEL PHELPS WEARING SPEEDO LZR AT SWIMSUIT LAUNCH
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADZDVHXXJFD71C72DA4OW0XNCB
  • Story Text: Germany's swimming coach Orjan Madsen must boost his swimmers' confidence during the "suit wars" before the August Olmpic Games.
    Norwegian coach Orjan Madsen was appointed technical director of Germany's Swimming Federation (DSV) in 2006 and on Tuesday (April 22) he was working hard on his mission to toughen the athletes up for competition and get Germany back challenging for gold medals in the pool at Beijing.
    But as he paces up and down the poolside watching Germany's swimmers train, Madsen has a problem involving big business, technology and sporting rules that threaten all his work to succeed in the Beijing Olympics.
    In February of this year Speedo launched its LZR Racer swimsuit which uses fabric and polyurethane in a high technology form to cling to the swimmer and reduce turbulence, particularly behind the shoulders.
    Rival manufacturers have claimed that the LZR Racer breaks rules governing the material used in swim suits or gives the wearer an unfair degree of buoyancy, but swimming's governing body FINA has refused to rule the suit illegal.
    Britta Steffen and Helge Meeuw were among the swimmers in promising form at the German national championships in Berlin in April, but hopes that Germany could land Olympic swimming gold for the first time since Dagmar Hase won the 400 m freestyle in 1992 have faded to almost nothing, as rivals clad in the LZR Racer suit have battered swimming records around the world.
    It is by no means certain that the LZR Racer is all-conquering, after all there are other suits by companies such as Tyr, Arena and Adidas, but enough swimmers have put their confidence in the LZR to affect the performance of those who cannot wear it, and that includes the German national team.
    The DSV is contracted to Adidas, which also has a high technology suit, and officials recently rejected a proposal to let their swimmers switch brands and race in LZR.
    "The fact remains, there are 39 world records, long and short course, this year, and 90 percent were in Speedo. That of course, does something to the athletes, and it's almost impossible to put yourself in a state of mind where you say it doesn't matter, of course it matters," he told Reuters on Tuesday (April 22).
    Madsen was disappointed that so many of his swimmers stayed away from the recent European Championships in Eindhoven, preferring to concentrate on getting ready for the recent national championships in Berlin which acted as Olympic qualifiers. But there was enough on show in Berlin to give Madsen cause for cautious optimism about Beijing.
    Steffen shaved a tenth of a second off her old world record time in the 100m freestyle and there were further European records for Meeuw in the 100m backstroke and Sarah Poewe in the 100m breaststroke.
    Steffen then showed that her decision to drop the 200m and concentrate on the shorter events was probably a wise one as she set a German record of
    19 in the 50 m freestyle.
    Pointing out that Germany has a tradition of good relay team performances, Madsen believes the 4x100, 4x200 freestyle, and the medley relay are realistic medal goals for the women's teams. His hopes are much less in the men's relays.
    "Individually it is Britta Steffen of course, in the 100-metre freestyle, it is Annika Lurz in the 200-metre freestyle, it's Helga Meeuw in the 100-metre backstroke," Madsen said.
    The Norwegian has staged regular training camps with his elite squad since taking over, most at high altitude, and they will convene in Berlin before heading to Japan for a pre-Games workout lasting 12 days.
    But for the present Madsen must boost the confidence of his swimmers while hoping for more ammunition in the "suit wars".
    "For the next three and a half months I am afraid that topic, the discussion with the suits, will remain and of course for me as head coach of the German swim team it is important that we work with our sponsor, Adidas, to get a suit where we all believe that this suit is just as good as the Speedo suit, otherwise no matter what you do, you will have a psychological disadvantage," he said.
    The other concern of all national coaches is the spectre of doping among athletes. German times improved so much in the Melbourne swimming championships in 2007 that there was inevitable suspicion of doping. Madsen believes he has done everything in his power to show his German swimmers are clean with a blood profiling programme that preserves samples for possible future analysis.
    "We do a lot of things pro-actively, besides the normal doping tests with NADA and FINA," he said.
    "I am convinced that we are clean, and we do more than most other countries to show it. What the other countries do and if they are clean or not, I don't care."
    Madsen's contract was to improve German performance in the Beijing Olympics, so his work will be done at the end of August. Then he will be able to concentrate on his post-Beijing retirement, when he will split his time between sports consultancy in Norway and kite-surfing at his condominium in the American Virgin Islands.
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