New York-It was a busy day in New York City for Olympic swimmers last Tuesday. At the exact moment that this writer and fellow Canadian Olympic swimmer Shannon Shakespeare were speaking at a press conference outside the Chinese Mission, (see A Week in the Life of Team Darfur) another group of Olympic swimmers were launching the newest Speedo Fastskin: The LZR Racer, 80 years in the making.

With just 6 months to go to Beijing, the day started with American stars Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Natalie Coughlin, Katie Hoff, Kate Ziegler, Amanda Beard, and Dara Torres sitting on the Today Show couches in their swimsuits. Lochte told host Matt Lauer, "Putting on the suit, it kind of makes you feel like a superhero, and it's just amazing, but you change."

Of course every swimmer will tell you the suit makes a difference, but if today's swims in Missouri are any indication, the hype just might be true! On the first day of finals at the Missouri Grand Prix, Kirsty Coventry broke Krisztina Egerszegi's 200 back world record from 1991. Coventry was wearing the new suit and posted a 2:06.39. Minutes later, Katie Hoff went after Laure Manadou's 400 free record, also in the new suit. She just missed it 4:02.20 to Manadou's 4:02.12, but broke the oldest American record on the books, Janet Evans' 1988 400m free. Hoff also won the 100 free in a best time of 54.28.

Michael Phelps says of the LZR Racer, "When I dove off the block it felt like I was went forever-right when I hit the water I felt like a rocket!" Aussie Grant Hackett also talked about the streamline effect, "You feel like you are cutting through the water like a hot knife through butter. It's amazing when you actually take the suit off and dive back in the water how floppy you feel, like you are really overweight or something, because it just keeps you so compressed and so tight through the water."

British swimmer Liam Tancock and Austrian Markus Rogan talked about the psychological angle at the international launches: "A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer," says Tancock, "Psychologically if I think I'm wearing the best suit, I'm going to swim fast." Rogan says "Design and comfort are very important to the mind and if you psychologically feel that the suit is faster and looks faster then you will swim faster."

Like the previous Fastskin suits, the LZR Racer was tested at NASA's wind tunnel and at New Zealand's University of Otago water flume, while Speedo also conducted 3D body scanning of over 400 of the best swimmers in the world to get the right fit.

Two years ago, I visited a Speedo factory in Sri Lanka, where Speedo International had made the Fastskin for Athens. While I was able to watch Fastskins being sewn I was only told about the high security development area where you needed a fingerprint scan to enter. In the highly competitive world of sports apparel, it finally seems that even swimmers are significant players.