Also known as: Magic Swimsuit, SPEEDO Swimsuit, LZRRacer Swimsuit, Fast Leather.
English name: shark skin swimsuit
In the swimming competition of Sydney Olympic Games, ian thorpe, an Australian, wore a black one-piece swimsuit, like a shark moving in the blue waves, breaking the waves and winning three gold medals in one fell swoop. His shark skin swimsuit became famous in the swimming world.
Shark skin swimsuit is nicknamed according to its appearance. In fact, it has a louder name: Kuaipi, and the core technology is to imitate shark skin. Biologists have found that rough V-shaped wrinkles on the surface of shark skin can greatly reduce the friction of water flow, make the water flow around the body more efficient, and sharks can swim quickly. Fast skin's ultra-stretched fiber surface is completely made by imitating the surface of shark skin. In addition, this swimsuit also fully integrates the principles of bionics: imitating human tendons at the seams to provide power for athletes to stroke backwards; Imitate human skin on the fabric, which is elastic. The experiment shows that the fast skin fiber can reduce the resistance of water by 3%, which is of great significance in the swimming competition where 1% seconds can decide the outcome. 1999 10, FINA officially allows athletes to wear fast leather to participate in the competition.
For years, people have been exploring what kind of swimsuit to wear to swim faster. The resistance that swimmers encounter in water is directly proportional to the density of water, the frontal lobe area of swimmers, the friction coefficient and the square of the speed of swimmers, so reducing the frontal lobe area and friction coefficient is the key to designing low-resistance swimsuits.
Speedo products
First generation shark skin
FASTSKIN in 2000
Imitating shark skin structure with fiber can guide the surrounding water flow, reduce water resistance and improve swimming speed by 3% ~ 7.5%. As a representative of shark skin, this swimsuit was popular all over the world in Sydney Olympic Games, and 83% of the contestants chose to wear shark skin to participate in the competition.
Second generation shark skin
FASTAKIN 2 in 2004
On the basis of 1 generation, adding granular dots on the surface of the fabric reduces the water resistance by 30%, and the overall functional ratio of 1 generation increases by 7.5%. In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, 47 athletes who won medals walked onto the podium in this swimsuit.
Third generation shark skin
FASTAKIN FS_PRO in 2007
It consists of oxygen-isolating elastic yarn and superfine nylon yarn. Its elasticity is 15% higher than that of similar products, which can reduce muscle vibration and energy loss. In 2007 1 year, he helped athletes from all over the world break the world record of 2 1 time.
The fourth generation shark skin
2008 FASTSKIN LZR racing car
The fourth generation is made of LZR Pulse fabric, which has extremely light weight, low resistance, waterproof and quick-drying performance. It is the first wrinkle-free competition swimsuit produced by high-tech welding in the world. In the new world record of 1 6 in the past1month, there are 14 items created by swimmers wearing this bathing suit.
7000 yuan a piece can only be worn six times.
"Shark skin" swimsuit has spent a lot of manpower and material resources in the development process, so its price is not cheap. The cost of a swimsuit is about 7000 yuan. In order to achieve the best effect, one can only be worn six times. Such an expensive swimsuit may be nothing to the well-paid European and American athletes, but it is far behind some African athletes. Choosing' shark skin' means that you should not only wear it in the competition, but also adapt to it in daily training. It costs an average of 1000 yuan each time, which is really a big sum. This will easily lead to the polarization of athletes' performance due to income differences.
Shark skin is also very complicated to wear. In order to make the swimsuit wrap the human body as tightly as possible, you must first put plastic bags on your hands and feet, and then several people push them up with their fingertips. You must never pull it hard. A designer said that the wavy zipper on the back of this swimsuit is also designed quite accurately. "The zipper must be close to the spine, and it will automatically collapse if it is slightly worn."
Mu Xiangxiong, a veteran swimmer in China, questioned the magical effect of' shark skin' when interviewed by reporters. He believes that scientific training methods are the main way to improve athletes' performance. "Although some athletes have recently broken the world record by wearing' shark skin', it is hard to say whether this new swimsuit can really improve their performance. Before each Olympic Games, there will always be some world records rewritten, because the players received systematic training before the game and their state was basically adjusted to the best, so it is very easy to achieve results. " Mu Xiangxiong explained, "Moreover, it is impossible to synchronize the effects of' shark skin' with ordinary swimsuits, because we can't prove whether an athlete can break the record of ordinary swimsuits at the same time and place."