High Tech Materials Olympic Swimwear Changes Dispute Is Recognized

Barcelona Olympic Games is the last traditional textile Swimsuit The Olympic Games that won most medals. At that time, male athletes wore briefs, while female athletes wore standard one-piece swimsuits.

A knee length swimsuit called Water Blade developed by Speedo can effectively reduce resistance. At the Atlanta Olympics, most of the award-winning athletes wore this swimsuit.

From 2000 to 2008, a "Speedskin" swimsuit based on "shark skin" appeared on the competition field. This tight swimsuit can cover the whole body of athletes, even the arms. One of the characteristics of shark skin is that both men's and women's styles are almost the same.

At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, two high-tech swimsuits containing polyurethane became popular, and the athletes wearing the swimsuits broke 26 world records in the competition.

At the London Olympic Games, all athletes will wear sleeveless textile swimsuits, which are knee length or shorter.

As the track and field competition second only to the gold medal event in previous Olympic Games, the swimming pool of the Olympic Games has always been a place for all countries to compete. If you want to appear in the top ten of the medal table, it is very important to get good results in the swimming events where 34 gold medals can be decided.

However, in today's world short distance swimming events, where experts gather, the technical gap between the top players is very small, and technology can no longer be the key to the success of the competition. Therefore, in order to achieve better results, technical personnel from all countries began to make articles on swimsuits. How to minimize the friction with the water flow, reduce the weight and improve the elasticity of the swimsuit has been a tireless topic for athletes and technicians in various countries.

germination

As early as the 1980s, high-tech swimsuits could already be found on the competition field. At the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, the "Hercules" swimsuit used by the U.S. team was the first generation high-tech swimsuit, made of polyurethane fiber and ultra-fine nylon fiber, which not only reduced the weight of the swimsuit, but also achieved almost perfect two-way scalability and overall smoothness. With the help of "Hercules", the famous American swimmer Matt Biondi harvested 5 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze, and broke the world record of 50 meter freestyle; The US team also broke world records in the 4x100m freestyle, medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay and other events.

Subsequently, Speedo, the world's leading high-tech swimsuit manufacturer, made three major innovations in swimsuit fabric research and development: S2000, the world's first fabric designed specifically for high-speed swimwear; The appearance of chlorine resistant fabric solves the problem of traditional nylon material fading in water; Water blade is another kind of fabric designed for competitive sports to improve swimming speed.

The direct result of more and more high-tech swimsuits is that world records are constantly broken. From 1996 to 2000, the advanced "water blade" swimsuit broke the world records in 10 men's and 12 women's short distance swimming events, with the maximum increase of nearly 6 seconds in men's performance (400m freestyle) and nearly 4 seconds in women's performance (200m breaststroke).

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brilliant

In 1996, the "Water Blade" made more and more people realize the importance of high-tech swimsuits for improving athletes' performance. Speed Beat Company struck while the iron was hot and launched the first "FastSkin" swimsuit that could cover the whole body of athletes in 2000.

This kind of shark skin swimsuit is made by imitating the skin bionics principle of sharks. It is said that the rough V-shaped folds on the surface of shark skin can greatly reduce the friction of water flow, so that the water around the body can flow more efficiently and the shark can swim quickly. According to this principle, the shark skin swimsuit imitates the human tendon at the seam to provide power for the athletes to pull backward; Imitate human skin on cloth, full of elasticity; At the same time, the swimsuit is 3D designed according to the body data of the athletes measured by laser, and is refined with non hydrophilic Teflon fiber, which tightly wraps the athletes from neck to wrist and ankle. Experiments show that wearing this swimsuit can help swimmers reduce water resistance by 3%. Reduce the resistance by 3%, which is of great significance in the swimming competition where the winner can be determined in one thousandth of a second.

At the 2000 Athens Olympic Games, the famous Australian swimmer Thorpe won three gold medals and two silver medals with his shark skin swimsuit, and broke the world records of 400m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay. At the Olympic Games, 83% of the athletes wearing this shark skin swimsuit won medals and broke the 13/15 world record.

The great success of the first generation of shark skin also justifies the research and development of the second and third generation. The excellent performance of the second and third generations did not disappoint.

With the help of high-performance shark skin swimsuits, the world record has become vulnerable. From 2000 to 2008, in eight years, 35 world records were broken in women's short distance swimming alone, with an average of 4.3 records broken every year; In men's short distance events, the world record is even more vulnerable. 60 world records have been broken, with an average of 7.4 world records broken every year! At the same time, the extent of improvement in competition performance is even more amazing. In the men's event, the 400m medley has the largest increase, with the result improved by more than 9 seconds; In women's events, the performance of the 200m breaststroke has improved by more than 7 seconds.

insane

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the fourth generation of shark skin created Phelps' eight gold myth that shocked the world in the Water Cube.

The fourth generation "shark skin" is composed of LZRPulse fabric with extremely light, low resistance, waterproof and quick drying performance, which is the world's first wrinkle free swimsuit produced by high-tech fusion. In the less than four months since its launch, the athletes who wear this ankle length one-piece swimsuit to participate in various swimming competitions have created more than 40 new world records. At the 2008 Olympic Games, a total of 24 short distance swimming world records were broken! In 2008, a total of 100 world records were broken by this small shark skin.

Under the amazing results, people finally began to reflect on whether today's swimming competition has become a swimsuit competition. As the fourth generation shark skin uses semi polyurethane materials that can improve the floating effect, in consideration of fairness and purity of sports, FINA has issued a new regulation called the Dubai Charter to regulate the swimsuits used by athletes in competitions and technically limit the appearance of "shark skin" in the swimming pool.

However, the death of "shark skin" did not stop high-tech swimsuits from further disturbing the order of the swimming pool. At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, ArenaX-Glide and Jaked01 became popular, making the glory of "Sharkskin" so insignificant.

The new high-tech swimsuit containing polyurethane has an important function besides drag reduction - increasing buoyancy by about 30%. According to professionals, the most critical part of high-tech swimwear is polyurethane coating, which is also widely used in military fields, such as the surface of submarines and warships. In addition, polyurethane swimsuits are 70 times more tight than ordinary swimsuits. In addition to helping to increase buoyancy, there are many additional functions, such as reducing friction, light weight, small resistance, etc. Moreover, wearing this kind of high-tech swimsuit can easily shape the body of an athlete into streamline.

At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, ArenaX-Glide and Jaked01 polyurethane swimsuits broke 26 world records and won 73 medals in total.

From 2008 to 2010, only 37 world records of short distance swimming were broken in men's competitions in just two years; What's more, 42 world records have been broken in women's competitions! The world record is as fragile as an eggshell in front of a high-tech swimsuit.

chill

People finally realized that if the use of high-tech swimsuits is not restricted, swimming will lose its original meaning. In the swimming pool, it seems that all swimsuit brands are pursuing higher, faster and stronger, while the players are just a carrier. The FINA had to discuss and adopt a decision during the World Championships to ban athletes from wearing swimsuits made of polyurethane in 2010.

The crazy progress of high-tech swimsuit seems to have stopped. At the London Olympic Games, all swimmers will wear sleeveless swimsuits made of textile materials. This action makes swimming seem to return to its most authentic state.