Lacey Nymeyer has a decision to make. Sometime in the next few weeks, a representative from Speedo will come to Tucson so the NCAA champion can test-drive its LZR Racer suit — made of space-age material that is helping swimmers skim across the water.
In the past three months, the black bodysuit has set the swimming world aflame with success — and controversy.
Since the suit's introduction in February, swimmers wearing the $550 LZR Racer have set 35 world records.
"This is unheard of," said UA swimming coach Frank Busch. "Generally speaking, there are zero records broken in the spring prior to the Olympics. Everybody's training."
Busch and others see a problem.
"If everybody's wearing that suit, the field will be level," Busch said. "But the history and the purity of the sport will be changed forever."
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The new suit lessens drag and friction, allowing swimmers to move quicker through the water. It makes swimmers faster, which is huge in a sport where the difference between medalists — or even Olympic qualifiers — is razor-thin.
Nymeyer, who just completed her senior season with the Arizona Wildcats will have to choose between the LZR Racer and a similar suit, the Tracer Light, made by rival TYR. Nymeyer tried out the TYR suit a week ago.
Arena's Powerskin R-Evolution also has the technology.
In an Olympic year, companies clamor for swimmers such as Nymeyer to wear their equipment on the world stage. They pay a small salary and wait to see how the swimmer performs.
She wants to pick a sponsor soon and try out her suit before the U.S. Olympic team swimming trials, which begin June 29 in Omaha, Neb.
"I really want to go into trials with the fastest suit possible," the Mountain View High School grad said. "Whether it's Speedo or TYR, whoever. When you come down to hundredths of a second, every little bit counts."
Swimmers and coaches have challenged the legality and morality of the suit. But April 12, the suit's polyurethane was ruled a "fabric," and therefore legal, by world swimming governing body FINA.
Nymeyer, like any athlete, is always looking for an edge.
"They ruled it legal," Nymeyer said. "And that's all the thought I'm going to put into it."
Space-age testing
Introducing the LZR Racer now is the equivalent of some golfers receiving new clubs just before The Masters — but it has its roots in the space program.
To find the right material — called LZR Pulse — Speedo tested 60 options at NASA to find the lowest skin friction drag.
The company moved on to water flume testing in New Zealand to examine passive drag. Speedo used ANSYS, an engineering software system, to determine where on the suit to eliminate drag.
The company scanned 400 athletes at swim meets worldwide to gain information about their body type. Stars Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin, among others, tested the suits.
Three pieces of the suit are bonded together ultrasonically, so there are no seams. The 2004 Speedo suit had more than 30 pieces.
Craig Brommers, Speedo's vice president of marketing, said the project started "when the last medal was awarded in Athens" and cost millions of dollars.
"When you do this kind of homework, you're going to get these kinds of results," he said.
Brommers said the LZR Racer has 10 percent less drag than Speedo's 2004 suit.
Ryk Neethling, a UA grad and 2004 gold medal winner in the 4x100 freestyle relay, said he heard it makes swimmers go 0.2 percent faster — though Speedo said it could not quantify the figure.
"I've been swimming internationally now for 15 years," Neethling said. "And if I get .2 percent faster in a year, that's a lot."
In Neethling's event, the 100 free, 0.2 percent could equate to almost one-tenth of a second, based on Neethling's time of 47.57 seconds at a meet earlier this year. At the 2004 Olympics, the difference between gold and silver in that same event was .06 of a second, so 0.2 percent can be huge.
Neethling swam in the TYR suit, which he said "makes you float." Nymeyer also said she felt like she was riding higher in the water.
"That means your kick can propel you forward instead of trying to keep you on top of the water," she said. "It just makes every movement more efficient."
Keeping up with "the fast kids"
The LZR Racer release is financially savvy. Millions of eyes are on swimming every Olympic year.
In 1992, Speedo launched the S2000, the first "fastsuit." In 1996, 76 percent of medalists wore Speedo's new Aquablade suit.
In 2000, 83 percent of Sydney medalists wore Speedo's Fastskin suit; in 2004, 47 percent wore the Fastskin FSII suit.
"Every Olympics, sports brands come out with their new Olympic technology," Brommers said. "Every once in a while there's a dramatic leap forward. This has been the biggest story in the 80-year history of the Speedo brand."
The financial ramifications trickle down to swimmers and their endorsers. Although Nymeyer is a free agent, most Arizona alums — save Amanda Beard — are affiliated with companies other than Speedo for national and international competition.
NCAA Woman of the Year and former Arizona swimmer Whitney Myers has been with Nike for more than a year. She admits swimmers "will always look for what the fast kids are doing" but vows to stay with Nike and its version of a fast suit. Other swimmers nationwide have ditched their sponsors for Speedo.
Adam Ritter signed a deal with TYR about two weeks ago because he felt comfortable with the Tracer Light.
"For me, no amount of money I'm going to get paid is going to be worth making or not making the Olympic team," he said.
Neethling, a South African, is sponsored by Arena. Speedo's most vocal opponent has developed a similar suit.
Neethling said he knows "I can beat someone, and I can outsmart them and out-experience them," yet he seems a bit concerned. Next week, Arena will send him its new suit.
"They have some of the best swimmers in the world they have to look after," he said. "I'm confident they'll come out with hopefully something better."
The LZR Racer does not come in children's sizes, but many worry the product will give an advantage to wealthier athletes.
"You're making swimming a sport only for the rich," Neethling said.
Mental edge
The suit has transformed swimming, controversy notwithstanding.
"Why not embrace something that's new, and look for the new evolution of swimming?" Nymeyer said. "I do know that not everyone can put on a suit and break a world record. It takes a lot of work."
Busch fears world records have been rendered meaningless — as if major-league baseball switched to aluminum bats.
"With the aluminum bat you're required to at least hit the ball," Busch said. "It would be like putting a radar sensor in the bat so it finds the ball. It's not just about a piece of equipment you use — it's a piece of equipment that you wear.
"As long as you don't put it on backward, you're good."
The suit gives swimmers a mental edge, Ritter said.
"When you don't have that suit, you feel like, 'Well, I'm at an instant disadvantage. I'm giving this person a head-start, basically,'" he said.
Busch said he understands the suit from a business sense, but the purist in him detests it.
Especially before the Olympics.
"Something about this right now, I don't think we have our arms around it," he said. "We've already seen the damage, the impact. That concerns me."
MICHAEL PHELPS
The Olympic champion wears Speedo's LZR Racer suit.
Cost: $550
