UK: SWIMMING: After being forced to revise the technology used in its swimsuits when the swimming federation FINA outlawed full-body, impermeable suits in 2009 Speedo says it has come up with a new approach inspired by torpedo design
Record ID:
330968
UK: SWIMMING: After being forced to revise the technology used in its swimsuits when the swimming federation FINA outlawed full-body, impermeable suits in 2009 Speedo says it has come up with a new approach inspired by torpedo design
- Title: UK: SWIMMING: After being forced to revise the technology used in its swimsuits when the swimming federation FINA outlawed full-body, impermeable suits in 2009 Speedo says it has come up with a new approach inspired by torpedo design
- Date: 28th July 2012
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 26, 2012) (REUTERS) SWIMMER IN SPEEDO SUIT PLACES GOOGLES ON HER EYES CAMERAMAN SHOOTING SWIMMER STANDING ON POOL DECK IN SPEEDO FASTSKIN SUIT, GOGGLES AND CAP
- Embargoed: 12th August 2012 13:00
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- Location: Usa, United Kingdom
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- Country: USA
- Topics: Technology,Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA4RVOWWV6K8JF9NB44WC3T6U1A
- Story Text: Move over Sharkskin, Speedo and swimming are now taking their inspiration from a different kind of fish, the barracuda.
Fastskin3, which is loosely based on the skin of the predatory fish, is the new suit of choice for most of the world's swimmers at the London Games which started on Saturday (July 28).
It was first used in competition this year and includes caps, goggles and suits which redistribute water flow along the lines of the barracuda.
It is the latest swimsuit in 12 years of radical suit evolution which started with the original Fastskin in 2000. Sean Hastings, Speedo Product and Marketing Vice-President, says basing the swimsuits on fish skin has been successful.
"When the Fastskin suits originally came out it was referred to as the sharkskin suit because the dermal denticle pattern on it was one of the things that made it fast and it mimicked a shark," he said.
"In 2008 the LZR racer suit that won 95 percent of gold medals in Beijing used polyurethane panels to help make the swimmer more hydrodynamic and faster through the water.
"The rules changed and so this time around if you want an analogy of what's the Fastskin racing system about, it's trying to make the swimmer into a torpedo. We're trying to take all the lumps and bumps and curves and make that into a perfect cylindrical shape like a torpedo, because that's the fastest shape through the water."
Dermal denticles are tough scales that cover the skin of sharks.
Since the controversial polyurethane Swimsuits were banned in 2009, suits must be sleeveless and cannot be longer than the knee. Speedo have adapted to the new rules by putting more emphasis on their swim caps and goggles.
Speedo's Aqualab Research Manager, Joe Santry, believes they have looked at track cycling helmets for inspiration.
"Where you might see a time trial cyclist wearing an aerodynamic pointy helmet, what we've tried to do is create that in a cap for the female," Santry said. "So they've got an inner hair cap they put on before the silicon cap and what it does is moulds their hair from what used to be a big ball on their head to a very smooth form, so the water flows over their head without hitting any lumps of hair and straight down over their back."
Reacting to the controversies surrounding swimsuits in the last number of years, Speedo's Global Marketing Manager, James Hickman, said it is the swimmer, not the suit, that breaks records.
"That's one thing I learned when I swam is that it doesn't matter," he said. "I had a world record and someone is going to swim faster in the same suit or not the same suit. People want to get faster.
"If you look at last year, two world records were broken by (American) Ryan Lochte and (Chinese) Sun Yang wearing the LZR Racer suit which was a tier back suit and they broke world records."
More records are expected to fall in London. In Beijing 25 world records were set in the Water Cube and with many of the stars of those Games returning - including Lochte and his compatriot, 14-times Olympic champion Michael Phelps and Britain's Rebecca Adlington - London is shaping up to be memorable summer. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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