Magic swimsuits

Swimsuits, and not swimmers, are breaking swimming records. At least that is the idea stuck in some German Olympic swimmers' minds. A note published in Yahoo explains that the German swimmers are worried that their performance in the Olympic games in Beijing will be hindered by the swimsuits they'll be wearing: After all, who would want to wear an Adidas suit when there is Speedo equipment available in the market?

It looks that a model recently introduced by Speedo, the LZR Racer, has been worn by record-breaking swimmers around the world. It's a pattern that the German Olympic swimming team has noticed lately, and they think that their performance in the upcoming Olympics is doomed unless their federation terminates a contract with Adidas, who has the exclusive rights to provide swimsuits to the German swimmers until 2009. Unfortunately for their case, they are not being backed up by the authorities of their own federation.

How can it be possible that a team considers their chances of success nil because of the swimsuits they wear? Not only that's a slap in the face to Adidas and all other swimsuit manufacturers, but it also reflects a lack of self confidence among the German swimmers. Interestingly, the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation), which is the governing body of water sports, has discarded a ban to the use of Speedo's 'magic swimsuit' in the Beijing Olympics, as they have found no scientific proof that the suit in fact provides unfair advantages to the swimmers wearing it.

It will be interesting to find out after the Beijing Olympics if, as the Germans suggest, there is indeed a correlation between the use of Speedo's swimsuit and the medals won in water disciplines.