By Gavin Jon Mowat, People's Daily Online


The swimming worlds in Rome 2009 will hold fond memories for many of its competitors. More world records have been broken at these swimming championships than anyone would have expected. In the 8 days of competition a remarkable 43 records have tumbled. But the competition and its haul of records have been marred over controversy concerning new swimsuits pioneered by Speedo and NASA and there impact on the swimmers times.

At last years Olympics in Beijing we all grew accustomed to seeing Michael Phelps standing on the podium receiving gold medals and breaking world records. In the not too distant past we have seen swimmers like Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Ian Crocker help Australia and the US completely dominate the sport. The two swimming giants were consistently producing swimmers who were strong enough to take down records and beat the competition. As recently as the Beijing Olympics the US and Australia took 17 of 25 world records broken at the meet while running away with 41 of the available 74 medals. There dominance seemed unbreakable. But things have been changing.

It started with the February 2008 introduction of the Speedo LZR swimsuit. No ordinary swimsuit, it was designed by NASA scientists with maximum streamline efficiency the objective. The suit was the first of its kind to be fully bonded - having no stitches, it is completely glued together. Made from 50% polyurethane, the Speedo LZR in its first year was responsible for 108 records. And this swimsuits success has been the catalyst for a new range of 100% polyurethane performance-enhancing suits; for the World Championships in Rome, the World Swimming Federation (Fina) approved no less than 202 new hi-tech suites. These championships have seen a further 43 new records being set and reset in 8 days. Nearly all the records at this meet have been broken by athletes wearing 50 or 100 percent polyurethane swimsuits;

Individual Races
Swimsuit worn \ Number of records \ Polyurethane %
Arena X-Glide \ 10 \ 100
Jaked 01\ 6 \ 100
Adidas Hydrofoil\ 1 \ 100
Speedo LZR\ 6 \ 50
Jaked\ 1 \ 100
Arena\ 4 \ 100
Adidas \ 2 \ 100

But can these suits really be responsible for so many world records in such a short space of time or are the world's swimmers just getting better?

The 100% polyurethane swimsuits have come under attack from swimmers, coaches and association bosses a-like. The tech-heads responsible for making the suits tell us that the suits will do three things; the 100% polyurethane will improve drag resistance enabling swimmers to "cut through the water"; there tight fit will compress the swimmers body and muscles making for better streamlining and less muscle fatigue; finally there is some speculation that the suits will also trap air pushing the swimmers body higher in the water therefore encountering less resistance. But taking up to half an hour to put on and incidents of ripping have meant that not everyone has opted to wear the new suits leaving those who do with an unfair advantage. Australian swimmer Libby Trickett says the swimsuits have taken the lime light away from people's performance and she doesn't think the sport should have headed in this direction. She is not alone. Speaking with the UK's BBC Beijing Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington said "…we need to go back to putting rules in place just to make it a fair field for everyone."

Rome 2009 has seen a noticeable shift in the balance of power regarding breaking world records. One of the more noteworthy, being German swimmers breaking a total of 6 world records over the 8 days, whereas 1 year ago at the Beijing Olympics they failed to break one. And also the Chinese team ranking 3rd with 4 world records ahead of the 1 they accomplished at the 2008 Olympics The previously dominant Australia only broke 3 records at this meet while a host of swimmers from other countries including Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Sweden, Holland and Serbia all managed to break records where they had broken none a year ago in Beijing. Perhaps these swimmers are just closing the gap and it's not just the swimsuits. Tell that to Michael Phelps' coach Bob Bowman. After Phelps, wearing his 50% polyurethane Speedo LZR lost the 200m freestyle final and his world record to Paul Biedermann and his Arena X-Glide swimsuit, Bowman said "It took Michael from 2003 to 2008 to go from 1.46 to 1.42.9 and this guy's done it in 11 months. That's an amazing training program. I would love to know how that works." The German swimmer who also broke Ian Thorpes 400m freestyle record of 7 years has improved his time by almost 7.5 seconds since he started wearing the suit. It turns out that Fina has decided to do a u-turn banning the hi-tech suits. It was announced that all swimsuits would be restricted to textiles in 2010. Finas Executive Director Cornel Marculescu said the rules would be applied in 2010 around April or May. However Bowman was annoyed by the lack of urgency, and when Phelps said he would not swim if the rules weren't applied sooner, Fina quickly did another u-turn. The rules will now apply from January 2010.

Swimmers across the board at Rome have been using these swimsuits, so although breaking records might be a little too easy, it's still fair to say that the balance of power might be shifting. That might mean good news for Germany and China and bad news for Australia. Although it might be some time before the records set in Rome fall any further. So, from 2010 records may be split into 2 types; textile swimsuit records and polyurethane swimsuit records. When this happens we will see just how big a gap there is between the hi-tech and low-tech suits. We will have to wait until next year to see if Germany and China can maintain a non-technology assisted challenge on Australia and the US. This years world championships have been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding these hi-tech swimsuits, and the mood was summed up by the 1500m freestyle world record holder Grant Hackett when he said, "what Fina's top officials have done to the sport, what they have allowed to happen is an absolute disgrace." The 3 time Olympic champion currently holds the only pre-bodysuit record still standing.