SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2010 SWIMMING
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Ryan Lochte, who never opted for the most technologically advanced bodysuits, was “thrilled” when they were banned. Breaking world records “can be done. . . . It’s just amatter of time.” he said.
Even without supersuits,
world records may fall Ban hasn’t affected swimmers as much as expected
BY AMY SHIPLEY This was supposed to be the
year of excruciatingly slow swim- ming. With the polyurethane bodysuits that led to dozens of world records now relegated to museum displays and garage sales, swimming insiders predict- ed times would balloon accord- ingly, by as much as 2 to 5 per- cent.
And in fact, some of the times
rose substantially at the U.S. championships earlier this month. The average time among the top three men in the 200 fly, for example, stood 2.29 percent higher than in 2009 and 3.30 percent greater than 2008. No American records were set, and no one disputes this: The ban on the high-tech suits brought an emphatic and unquestioned halt to three wild years of world-re- cord obliteration. Yet American Ryan Lochte
found himself within spitting dis- tance of his own world record in the 200-meter individual medley and said he hopes to take it down at this week’s multi-nation Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, Calif. Rebecca Soni and Michael Phelps also laid down times that leftthemwithin sight of thewom- en’s 200 breaststroke and men’s 100 butterfly world marks. American athletes and coach-
es say Lochte’s excellence and other strong performances at na- tionals offer evidence that the team’s best swimmers can close the gapmorequickly than expect- ed.
“I don’t think it’s going to be
that long before we figure out how to repeat those [world re- cord] times,” said Dana Vollmer, who will compete in the 100 and 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly at thePanPacs,whichwill feature 21 nations including charter coun- tries Canada, Australia and Ja- pan. “I would be expecting that [this week]. It’s been a goal of mine to go best times in every event even though I’m not in a suit. I wouldn’t put [world re- cords] past people.” Average times of the top three
finishers in each event at the U.S. championships swelled by less than 1 percent compared to the times posted at last year’s world championship trials (0.80 per- cent), which featured most of the latest suit technology, and the 2008 Olympic trials (0.97 per- cent), which featured some of the top technology, according to a Washington Post review. In a few events, the top com-
petitors actually went faster. “I almost broke my world re-
cord in the 200 IM,” Lochte said by phone from the team’s training camp in Irvine last week. “It can be done. I’m hoping [this] week. It’s just a matter of time.”
Applied knowledge
Swimmersandcoaches say the supersuits did not merely in- crease athletes’ speed; they also taught them how to go faster — critical information some have already applied to their training. Swimmers say the super-
suits’ buoyancy essentially pushed athletes higher in the water, and their tightness effec- tively held everything in position, allowing swimmers to maintain excellent body position and tight streamlines almost effortlessly. That allowed them to use their energy to drive their arms, shoulders and legs. And, just as important, the
slippery suits also decreased re- sistance, which helped swimmers shoot more quickly off the walls on turns. Ariana Kukors, who set the
world record in the 200 medley last year, said the difference be- tween her best of 2:06.15 and the 2:10.54 she swam at the U.S. championships largely resulted
from her speed on the underwa- ter portion of those races. “The suits opened our eyes to a
whole new realm of possibility,” Kukors said. “Everyone wants to get back to those times, to figure out how to get their bodies to do it.”
Indeed, once the suit ban went
into effect in January, coaches, swimmers and USA Swimming officials tried to take the knowl- edge they gained and apply it strategically to workout plans. That meant veering away from traditional weight-trainingmeth- ods — which became popular in the supersuit era — and moving toward core-intensive strength programs, such as those provided by Pilates-type workouts. Itmeanthoning inonsuperior
stroke technique and drills de- signed to build middle-body strength. “The suits showed everybody
just how beneficial it is to have that core stability and that strength, that line in the water,” Vollmer said. “It opened eyes to how much faster your swimming could be if you focused on those things.” For the last seven months that
focus has guided Lochte, who overshadowed the 14-time Olym- pic gold medalist Phelps at the U.S. championships for the first time in his career. Lochte beat Phelps in the 200 medley and won two other events, the 200 backstrokeand400medley, while getting seconds in the 100 and 200 free. That meant he qualified for five individual events at the Pan Pacs; Phelps, who won the 200 free and 100 and 200 fly, only qualified in four. Lochte’s coach, Gregg Troy,
said he has never seen Lochte workharder than he has this year. Lochte not only bumped his weight workouts from three days to four, but he also changed the regimen to include more core-re- lated work. And he worked to improve his upper-leg strength to strengthen his pushes off walls, an area in which he has long excelled. “Without the suits, you don’t
have that buoyancy anymore, so you actually really had to go back to work on your core,” Lochte said. “Without the suit, you have to be really slimmed and fit.” It’s difficult to make broad-
brush generalizations about the impact of the suits on specific events, since times also have been heavily affected by the quality of the athletes competing from year to year. For example, one-time wunderkids KatieHoff of Towson and distance star Kate Ziegler of Great Falls sank into slumps last year, which explainswhy times in events in which they competed (and once dominated) got worse, rather than faster, at the 2009 world championship trials. Meantime, Phelps blamed his
relatively poor performance in certain events at this year’s na- tionalsonthe facthewasn’t in top shape. Those and other athlete-spe-
cific developments seemingly in- fluenced the times in some events as much as, or more than, the suits did. But in at least one group of
events, the women’s freestyles, a clear trend emerged during the U.S. championships. Across the board, female freestylers man- aged impressive swims. In the 100, 400 and 800 free, the win- ners went faster than the 2009 champions. In the 200 free, the top three went faster on average than the top three in ’09. “I feel like the fly and the
breast [strokes] got a lot more benefit from the fancy suits,” said Chloe Sutton, who won the 800 free for the second straight year, surpassing her2009timebynear- ly five seconds. “Those are the undulation strokes, the short-axis strokes where the hips and chest
alternate position. . . . [With
those strokes] your body has more drag, and the suits reduce it so much. “I fell like the freestyle was the
one affected the least. With the long-axis strokes, there isn’t as much drag there.”
Limited benefits There is widespread agree-
ment that the suits provided the least benefit to the very best swimmers, because the most ac- complished instinctively did the things the suits were credited with helping even middling swimmers achieve. That fact sug- gests the sport’s stars have less ground to cover to reach their suit-enhanced times. Lochte, who never opted for
the most technologically ad- vanced supersuits, said he prefers the textile jammer to the longer synthetic suits; it simply, he said, feels more comfortable. Vollmer, who went faster in
winning the 100 freestyle at this year’s national championships than she did in winning the title last summer, said she liked how her 2009 high-tech Jaked suit allowed her to slip easily through the water, but the buoyancy it provided interfered with her free- style stroke. “Putting on the suits altered
[my] stroke and almost felt un- comfortable,” Vollmer said. “My underwaters felt amazing in the Jaked suit, but my swimming didn’t actually feel faster—it felt ‘off.’ ” Last year’s world champion-
ships in Rome featured 43 world records. The Olympics in Beijing in 2008 produced 25 world re- cordsandthe2007worldchampi- onships in Melbourne, at which the newfangled suits began to emerge in force, produced 15 world marks. Though U.S. swimmers can be
expected to drop time this week’s international meet, the drops surely won’t be dramatic as after last summer’sU.S. world champi- onships trials as swimmers got accustomed or, in some cases, switched to the highest-end speedsuits.Many were still trying to get their hands on the very latest technology at the 2009U.S. championships. If even a single world record
were to fall this week at the Pan Pacific Championships, it would be very, very big news. “Any world record that is bro-
kennowis going to bemuchmore impressive,” said Gregg Troy, Lochte’s coach and the head U.S. men’s coach. Yet Lochte hopes he has one in
him. At the 2009 world meet, he topped the record Phelps set at the 2008SummerGameswith his time of 1:54.10. Two weeks ago he hit 1:54.84. “I was thrilled” when the suits
were banned, Lochte said. “I was so happy. Finally, everybody would be playing on the same level. Now it’s up to the swim- mer.”
shipleya@washpost.com
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