Speedo, the world's leading swimwear brand, unveiled the special Olympic edition Team USA LZR ("Laser") RACER suit.
Only 1,000 of these limited edition swim suits will be available and they will be priced at $600, $50 more than the basic edition. That is pretty expensive!
Michael Phelps poses with the new Fastskin LZR Racer swimsuit in the photo below:
The new Fastskin LZR Racer is the latest iteration of the Fastskin series of swim suits. Made from an ultra lightweight, low drag, water repellent, and fast-drying fabric unique to Speedo called LZR Pulse, the LZR Racer suit is the world's first fully bonded competition swimsuit. The suit is ultrasonically welded which gives the effect of no seams at all. Ultra low drag LZR panels are laminated onto the base fabric to create a Hydro Form Compression System helping to compress the entire swimmer's body into a more streamlined shape and enabling them to cut through the water with more power and agility.
The LZR Racer suit has undergone tests in wind tunnels used by NASA to test the aerodynamic qualities of space shuttles.
These claims are impressive! The world's greatest swimmers continue to shatter the world records with the controversial new swim suit made by Speedo. In fact, at the time of writing this article, 46 world records have been smashed! The suit looks fast, and with swimmers like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Natalie Coughlin, Leisel Jones, Park Tae-Hwan, and Kate Ziegler in them, I bet they will be the fastest swimsuits on the planet in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Some quotes from the Team US swimmers: Michael Phelps: "When I hit the water, I feel like a rocket"
Ryan Lochte: "Putting on the suit kind of makes you feel like a super hero"
Grant Hackett: "It's the best yet"
Natalie Coughlin: "It feels incredible"
Libby Trickett: "It feels like I'm swimming downhill"
Seen in the photo below, the Thai Olympic swimmer Natthanan Jankrajang poses in a Speedo Fastskin LZR Racer suit. The Nation newspaper reports that the swimsuit has helped her improve her 25m freestyle timing from 12 to 11.4 seconds.
Speedo worked with legendary design house Comme des Garcons to develop a one-of-kind look for Team USA featuring the red, white and blue of the American flag. The design by visionary founder of Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo, joins the distinctive metallic silver calligraphy that already appears on the suit. The calligraphy, painted by celebrated artist Inoue Yu-ichi, means 'kokoro' representing the heart, spirit and mind.
So what is Surface Drag?Skin friction or surface drag is the force that tends to slow a swimmer down by means of the water passing along the surface of the suit and/or skin. As the characteristics of the water can't be changed the solution for the swimmer is to make the suit/skin as smooth as possible. Essentially the rougher the surface the more likely it is to 'grab' onto the water that is moving by. Greater body coverage with low frictional materials that don't restrict movement is required to reduce skin friction drag.
Some facts about the Speedo LZR RACER swimsuit:- The Speedo LZR RACER suit has 10% less passive drag than Speedo's FASTSKIN FSII launched in 2004 and 5%* less passive drag than FASTSKIN FS-PRO (which has already resulted in 21 world records broken since its launch at the FINA Worlds Championships at Melbourne in March 2007).
- Strategically placed LZR Panels reduce skin friction drag by a massive 24% in comparison to Speedo's previous market-leading material, FASTSKIN - and an enormous 38% less drag than ordinary Nylon Lycra.
- The 100% bonded seams provide 6% less skin friction drag than a conventionally stitched or woven seam.
- The Speedo LZR RACER makes it easier to swim faster. In tests comparing LZR-RACER and training swimwear, Swimmers have up to 5% more efficiency in terms of their Oxygen intake - therefore requiring less effort for a given speed of swimming.
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