Know Your Olympic Sport: Michael Phelps (i.e. Swimming)

Undressed To Win

Anybody notice something missing on Phelps during the aforementioned butterfly event? While side-by-side photos show Cavic wearing the infamous Speedo LZR suit, Phelps wore only the pants. Why would Phelps, in a race decided by the smallest amount possible, not wear the full suit? With universal agreement that the suit works (Nike even let its athletes wear Speedo), the intermittent usage is puzzling. Representatives from Speedo claim that the suit provides an equivalent advantage independent of stroke and that personal habit accounts for the usage (though faster events would be more dependent on drag). But the difference in outfit lets us imagine for a second (or hundredth of a second, as it were) that the result might have been different had Phelps been fully dressed.

The LZR Racer: The result of all this is a near-perfect suit. When it was used for the first time at meets in Missouri and Australia, three world records and two American records fell  Speedo

Deep Waters Run Still

While Phelps didn't wear the suit in each event, the very pool he swam in may have helped him break seven world records among his eight gold medals. The pool is three meters deep versus the traditional two, minimizing the size of waves. The pool is also wider than many used in competition and has a novel gutter system that provides additional relief for disruptive waves. Even the seemingly inert buoys that serve as lane dividers are designed specifically to direct water downward and not directly into the lane. If designer John Bilmon had his way, the times could've been even faster. A modification to the starting blocks (some sort of an added flap to push off), was not allowed by the governing body, though it will debut at next year's world championships. The original plan was also to include porous walls that would further dissipate the waves, but the Chinese apparently balked at the price. Perhaps the British have some more cash for London 2012?