Apparently, there's controversy surrounding the bodysuits some Olympic swimmers are racing in.
I didn't pay attention during the 2004 Athens games, so this weekend I was surprised to see the athletes wearing long-legged, torso-covering suits as they turned laps in the pool.
What gives? What happened to those itty-bitty Speedos and the guys who shaved their legs to reduce drag in the water?
From a quick search, I learned that more than 40 world records have come from swimmers wearing a particular high-tech Speedo suit, the LZR Racer (pictured).
Apparently, the suit is made of lightweight, seamless, low-drag fabric with a "core stabilizer" to help swimmers maintain their form longer in the water.
The flurry of world records has driven a debate about whether the water-repellent technology in swimsuits should be allowed because of their "performance-enhancing" effects. Do wearers have an unfair advantage?
One coach supports the technological advances but predicted records would not mean as much in the future.
"Because of the new swimsuit technology, I think records are eventually going to not really be relevant. It's going to be more about the racing," renown U.S. swimming coach Mark Schubert told the Daily Telegraph in Melbourne.
"The records are going to get destroyed. That's pretty obvious. Really since the world championships in Melbourne it has been pretty obvious these new suits are really changing the sport. But it makes it fun."
Check out a gallery of Olympic swimsuits through the years.
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