Inspo from sharks and space: The swimsuit innovations setting the pace in Paris

Swimming is synonymous with Australian success at the Olympics. Since the Sydney Games in 2000, almost 40 per cent of Australia’s gold medals have come from swimming events in the pool. It’s why the country’s best swimmers take technology seriously –and have done so for many years.

Speedo’s Fastskin suit, inspired by shark skin, was introduced at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The texture helps direct the flow of water and reduce drag.

In November last year, Speedo unveiled two new swimsuits it believes will have a significant impact on performances when the swimming competition gets underway in Paris on July 27. The Speedo Fastskin swimsuits – LZR Intent 2.0 and LZR Valor 2.0 – will be used by the majority of Australia’s top swimmers and have already caught the attention of many on the pool deck due to their eye-catching colours. Since the suits were launched, three world records (at the time of publication) have been broken – all by swimmers wearing Speedo attire: Australia’s Ariarne Titmus (women’s 200 metres freestyle), China’s Pan Zhanle (men’s 100 metres freestyle) and Canada’s Summer McIntosh (women’s 400 metres individual medley).

Speedo, an Australian-born company now based in the UK, is an official sponsor of the Australian Olympic team, but swimmers are free to wear whatever attire they choose at the Games. Speedo has an official green-and-gold swimsuit; if an athlete wears a different brand, the competing logo won’t feature.

All four of Australia’s individual swimming gold medallists at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and Zac Stubblety-Cook – will be wearing the new Speedo suits in Paris and are quietly confident they can go faster than ever before.

From left: Summer McIntosh broke her own world record in May in the new Speedo design, Ian Thorpe’s record-breaking feats at Sydney 2000 came in an Adidas Teflon-coated bodysuit and Pan Zhanle also registered a 2024 world record wearing a Fastskin 2.0.

So, too, are the younger brigade. “I’ve worn Speedo race suits my whole life, so I was really excited to try their new technology,” says Elizabeth Dekkers, a silver medallist in the women’s 200 metres butterfly at last year’s world championships. “I feel the difference significantly while swimming. I feel there is greater compression and buoyancy in the suit which really makes a difference in racing. Aside from that, I found the suits stay ‘fresh’ for longer.”

Across all countries, 61 per cent of swimming gold medals won at the Tokyo Olympics were by athletes in Speedo attire.

Designing a new competitive swimsuit takes about four years, and they are generally rolled out in Olympic cycles. Stage one of the process is gathering insights, while the second is determining what fabric base will be used. Swimmers are consulted throughout the process.

The newest feature of the lightweight Speedo swimsuits at these Games is a coating that increases water repellency. Originally pioneered by a Swiss-based tech company, it was used in space as an additional protective layer on satellites. On swimsuits it allows the fabric to repel water, reducing resistance to help competitors swim faster.

The study of sharks has also been integral to Speedo’s story and to the performance of Australia’s swimmers. The Fastskin suits are made of a shark-skin-inspired fabric which has a textured surface that significantly improves the way swimmers move through the water.

“If you were to hit a smooth golf ball, it would only go a certain distance, because the divots in a golf ball carry the air better and allow it to travel further,” says Jonny Higham, Speedo Australia’s head of marketing.

“In the same sense, on any curved area of the body, if you apply specific textures it can create a flow of water that sticks more closely to the body, creating a smaller overall drag area.”

The Speedo Fastskin suit was first introduced at the Sydney Olympics and had instant success, with 83 per cent of medal-winners wearing the suit.

The Speedo Fastskin swimsuits – LZR Intent 2.0 (left) and LZR Valor 2.0 (right) – will be used by the majority of Australia’s top swimmers.

There was one notable swimmer who didn’t: Ian Thorpe. The then 17-year-old was given permission by the Australian Olympic Committee to wear an Adidas Teflon-coated bodysuit instead of the team-sponsored Speedo kit. “If I win an Olympic gold medal this year, I don’t believe it will be because of a swimsuit,” Thorpe wrote in a newspaper column in May 2000, four months before the Olympics. Thorpe went on to win three gold medals (400 metres freestyle, 4x100 metres freestyle relay, 4x200 metres freestyle relay) and two silver medals (200 metres freestyle, 4x100 metres medley relay) at a home Olympics.

Speedo expects about “60 to 70 per cent” of the Dolphins team will wear its attire in Paris. However, don’t expect winning times in Paris to be drastically different or resemble anything like the farcical scenes of the 2009 world swimming championships during the “supersuit era”, where 43 world records were broken. In late 2009, FINA, swimming’s governing body, was forced to ban controversial polyurethane swimsuits that resulted in hundreds of world records and eroded the sport’s integrity. As a result, FINA decided textile-only suits were allowed to be worn.

Australia’s swimming team could make history in Paris, with a record gold-medal haul on the cards if all things go to plan. The number to beat is the nine gold medals won by Australia three years ago in Tokyo. McKeon, Titmus, McKeown and Stubblety-Cook are almost certain to win more medals, but the likes of future stars Sam Short and Mollie O’Callaghan will also be wearing the latest technology, ready to make a name for themselves on the biggest stage of all.

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