Dr. Rick Sharp

Dr. Rick Sharp Helps Design Speedo’s Best New Suit

In the six months since its release, the Fastskin FS-Pro has already impacted dozens of national and international swimming records. Made from a new fabric conceptualized by Speedo, the FS-Pro offers a combination once believed to be impossible. It weighs less than half as much as most standard swimsuits yet maintains the muscle compression of a heavy body wrap.

"Swimming is at the point now where these kids are going so fast that just a tiny, tiny, minute detail can have a very noticeable impact on outcome," said Rick Sharp, an exercise physiologist at Iowa State University who helped create the FS-Pro. "We thought this suit could give swimmers a microscopic advantage, but we didn't know exactly how much." A former competitive swimmer who swims daily, Dr. Sharp is a physiology consultant to Speedo International and participates in numerous swimming coach education programs in the U.S. and abroad.

Speedo began creating the suit two years ago, when it asked a small Italian fabric shop to experiment with weaving a combination of spandex and nylon yarn. The weave that resulted felt almost like a windbreaker when dry, and its performance during early testing stunned Speedo executives. The fabric, patented and dubbed LZR Pulse, weighed 70 percent less than other swimsuits but showed 15 percent better compression. It retained almost no water. Speedo's previous suit, the Fastskin, took 16 hours to dry after one hour in the water; the FS-Pro only needed 45 minutes.

"It has become a landmark suit in the history of swimming," said Mark Schubert, head coach of USA Swimming. "It's probably the biggest jump in technology since the mid-1970s, when we switched over from baggy nylon suits to form-fitting ones. It's hard to overstate the difference here." At the world championships in Melbourne, Australia, U.S. swimmers set 21 national records in the FS-Pro. Swimmers wearing the new suit established twelve world records. 76% of all athletes who wore the FS-Pro swam a personal-best time. Only 18 percent of swimmers who wore anything else managed to do the same. The suit itself propels swimmers through the water faster. Because athletes believe they will go faster, they swim with increased confidence.

This article was adapted from a story in the Washington Post. To read the entire news story by Eli Saslow, Washington Post Staff Writer, please use the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001610.html

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