LZR Racer: Banned In Canada And Maybe At NCAAs
2008-03-26
Craig Lord
The lack of availability of the new Speedo suit has prompted meet organisers to disallow use of the garment in fairness to competitors who feel disadvantaged; Speedo confirms - no suits 'til June

The Speedo LZR racer has been banned at Canadian Olympic trials and looks set to de disallowed at NCAAs too. Beyond the high cost of the suit, the bigger problem is the lack of availability. Swimmers unable to get hold of the garment feel disadvantaged, say meet organisers. The Canadian trials organising committee weas looking further into the issue today.

The knock-on effect of the decision to exclude the suit will be interesting to watch: as speedsters knock seven bells out of what was once amazing world champion Brent Hayden (CAN) must qualify for Beijing wearing the last generation of suit at his Olympic trials next week.

'It is amazing what the suit can do to people,' Stephanie Rice is quoted far and wide as saying after demolishing Wu Yanyan's dubious effort in China in 1997 in the 200m medley at Australian trials in Sydney. Rice raced 2.5sec inside her personal best.

In Britain, masters swimmer Graham Short has complained to FINA that swimmers heading for the Olympic trials in Britain next week cannot buy the suit and will have to compete against national team members who will be wearing the garment.

His complaint highlighted FINA rule 5.6: 'The manufacturers must ensure that the approved new swimsuit will be available for all competitors'.

When Short contacted Speedo, the following reply came back:

'We have supplied Loughborough University with the new LZR suits because they were helpful to us during the development and production of the suit. Unfortunately these suits won't be on general sale until about June - and then only in limited supply. We are taking pre-orders now, but the suits will not be available to every swimmer who takes part in the Olympic trials in Sheffield.'

That confirms the problem.

Cornel Marculescu, Director of FINA, has asked Speedo for immediate clarification.

Speedo is not denying that its suit improves performance: claims include a 5 per cent cut in drag factor and also that compression elements somehow aid oxygen uptake by 5 per cent. There is also the core stabiliser that acts like a corset in helping a swimmer maintain optimum position in the water.

Tom Johnson, Hayden's coach, told the Toronto Star: 'The only thing we don't want to be is to be feeling like we're being treated any less fairly than any of the countries in the world that have access to this suit. But we were told that the suit wasn't available. The question now is: If it's not available, how come everybody has it?'

Speedo Canada officials said that the Canadian team will get the new suits right after the Olympic trials next week. At the helm, Pierre Lafontaine told the paper: 'It's more the fairness in the trials and then after that we'll deal with the world.'

A source in the NCAA world tells me that the colleges are likely to ban the use of suits that are not made available to all.