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Some have called it a technological breakthrough, others simply an elaborate publicity stunt, but a controversial space-age swimsuit has gripped the swimming world.
A host of world records has been toppled in the past eight weeks - 36 as of Sunday - by swimmers wearing the high-tech LZR Racer bodysuit, which manufacturer Speedo claims can carve as much as 2 per cent off race times.
But the LZR, developed with the help of US space agency Nasa, has plunged the sport into uncharted waters, with swimmers breaching lucrative kit contracts to wear it and rows over the legality of the materials used.
Speedo says the LZR aids streamlining and reduces skin vibration and muscle oscillation, but critics say use of the suit is tantamount to "technological doping" and should never have been approved.
Mark Schubert, who has coached the United States team at every Olympics since 1980, said the $550 ($704) LZR was "better than anything seen before" but it left swimmers contracted to other brands with a huge dilemma.
"I feel very sorry for them," Schubert said. "Do you go for the money or go for the gold?
"They say the suit is rocket science but the statistics aren't. The other companies just haven't put the effort in. They've focused more on fashion than performance. They need to get with it, it's simple."
But other swimwear manufacturers say their suits are only inferior because they had followed the rules concerning materials set by swimming's world governing body, Fina.
Fina has stood by its decision to approve the LZR, which has had no independent testing, saying the suit was legal and Speedo's competitors had misinterpreted the rules.
Fina said the word "fabric" could also mean non-woven materials, such as neoprene and polyurethane, as used in the Speedo suit.
Some swimmers have suggested its benefits are being exaggerated, others have hailed it as pioneering.
Michael Phelps, winner of six gold medals at the Athens Olympics, said he "felt like a rocket" in the LZR.
But Croatia's Duje Draganja, the world's fastest man in water, was a little more sceptical about the brand's claims, despite using the suit in smashing the 50m freestyle world record in Manchester.
"It's a great commercial - it's good, but not that good," he said. "Fast swimmers are fast swimmers. That will always be the case, suit or no suit."
- REUTERS
