Olympic Tech: Swimming.

In case you've been in the NorthWoods of WI for the last week or so, below is info on the suit that many of the fastest swimmers in the world are rockin' in the Summer Games. It's won some gold medals already and promises to rack up more before the week's out.



Here's some 411 on the Speedo Fastskin LZR Racer:

• Speedo used NASA to help design the suit. Yup - rocket scientists.
• Lots of tests in water flumes to test passive drag (10% better than the Fastskin FSII - 2004's fast Speedo swimsuit - and 5% better than then the FS-PRO, the fastest Speedo suit from 2007.
• Tests to show where the most drag occurs on a swimmer's body led to a suit designed to minimize drag in those areas.
• Body scanning of 400 elite athletes to help develop an efficient suit pattern for construction.
• Bonded seams, so no stitches to cause drag.
• A hidden zipper - again, less drag.
• LZR polyurethane panels reduce drag in some areas of the swimsuit by as much as 24% compared to other Speedo suits.
• And a bigee - 5% less effort to go the same speed - a swimmer can use less energy to go a given speed, so they ought ot have more energy to go faster or hold that speed longer.

Of course, swimmers not using Speedo products don't want to be left on the blocks, at least 6 other companies will be making their own version of a fast suit for their sponsored athletes. Thank God.

And since t.c is all about bringing great stuff to the masses, like all the other Olympic Tech posts, you can go out and buy this too, just pony up the $500 for the suit, then get two friends to help you get into it while you stand there naked. Fun.