In the world of Olympic competition, participants will do anything they can to get an edge. Some take things a little too far, using performance enhancing drugs, but you can be sure that even those who would never break the rules are doing everything in their power to get the most out of them.
Apparel and equipment manufacturers are definitely on board, spending millions of dollars to produce the ultimate pair of skis, sneakers or skates that will propel their athlete (wearing their logo) to victory. So it is with Speedo, but it may have been a little too successful with its new suit, which has
been breaking records by the dozen since it first saw competition.
The suit, called the LCR Racer, uses a variety of different materials to shape and optimize the body of the swimmer, including some panels that flex and provide little resistance along with other panels, along the abdomen, that are much stiffer and provide support. This composite construction, combined with the lack of seams (thanks to ultrasonic welding used to join those panels together), results in a suit with considerably less drag and, ultimately, much greater speeds.
The suit was co-developed with NASA at an estimated cost of roughly $4 million. Since it was launched in February,
16 world records in swimming have been broken. Of those, all but one were broken by a swimmer wearing the LCR Racer.
This excellent performance has earned the suit some extra attention by Olympics officials as qualifying races are getting underway. But, so far, it is in the clear and legal for use in the games. We'll surely be seeing much, much more of if this summer.
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