The Suit That’s Helping Swimmers Win Gold Medals
While you’re watching your favorite swimmers compete for gold at the Olympics, keep in mind that it’s not just their muscles propelling them through the water. Their suits have a lot to do with it.
Speedo’s LZR suit, for instance, has a full-body, impermeable design that helped win 95% of the gold medals in 2008.
That was outlawed the next year, however.
So at this year’s Olympics, Speedo has equipped many competitors – including team USA – with its new Fastskin 3 suit.
The idea is that the design forces the body to move through the water like a torpedo…
As Speedo’s Vice President of product and marketing, Sean Hastings, says, “If you want an analogy of what 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.”
The suit might have helped a few gold- and silver-medal winners yesterday. During the highly anticipated 4 X 100-meter men’s relay, the guys from France and the United States were all wearing Speedo suits.
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