The amalgamation of technology and sports has often given rise to a difference in performance. And going by a recent statistic, it might be working positively for the swimming world. In an era of optimization and making things work better in a sustainable fashion, a unique garment entered the arena and made some serious waves.

In 2009, the era of super suits or tech suits was prolific. This made a stark difference in the number of world records, according to a graph by Swimming Stats. Therefore, these tech suits have performed above and beyond expectations. But all of this begs the question – what exactly are these tech suits? Let’s dive deep to find out!

Tech Suits: The future of swimming?

The USA Swimming defines tech suits as garments made of woven material, are taped at the seams, have a ‘FINA Certified’ logo, and extend up to the knee. These suits optimize swimming by becoming hydrophobic in the water and compressing the body of the wearer. This helps swimmers move faster underwater. In 2009, these suits were a rage all across swimming athletes.

In the graphic representation of world records established from 1973-2022, the year 2009 saw an incredible rise in world records. Therefore, we can establish a positive correlation here – super suits truly changed the future of swimming.

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Deriving their technology from NASA, these super suits were made entirely of polyurethane. This allowed swimmers to increase buoyancy and better their performance. Despite having all these advantages, super suits were banned a year later. And a certain swimming GOAT spoke up about it.

Michael Phelps and coach Bowman on the suit

While 2009 saw the boom in the use of super suits, it also witnessed increasing debates surrounding it. Swimmers came together to break multiple world records, which also gave rise to controversies. All of this reached a climax when in 2009, German swimmer Paul Biedermann defeated Michael Phelps.

The topic soon spread like wildfire – was the use of super suits tampering with the competition? Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman called it a mess and threatened to take the GOAT out of the competition. Meanwhile, Phelps also mentioned that the suits modified the competition in some way. Eventually, a ban was issued. As of now, we know that tech suits are quite heavy on the pockets, even though they might usher in a new era of swimming. Will we see a time like 2009 again? We might just have to wait and watch.

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