Space-age suits race into uncharted waters

By Martin Petty

MANCHESTER (Reuters) - Some have called it a technological breakthrough, others simply an elaborate publicity stunt, but a controversial space-age swimsuit has gripped the swimming world.

A host of world records has been toppled in the last eight weeks -- 36 as of Sunday -- by swimmers wearing the high-tech LZR Racer bodysuit, which manufacturer Speedo claims can carve as much as two percent off race times.

But the LZR, developed with the help of U.S. space agency NASA, has plunged the sport into uncharted waters, with swimmers breaching lucrative kit contracts to wear it and rows over the legality of the materials used.

Speedo say the LZR aids streamlining and reduces skin vibration and muscle oscillation, but critics say use of the suit is tantamount to "technological doping" and should never have been approved.

With a flurry of world records broken in the LZR and scores of athletes qualifying for the Beijing Olympics having worn the suit, coaches and swimmers say records cannot be rescinded and it is too late for it to be banned.

Mark Schubert, who has coached the United States team at every Olympics since 1980, said the $550 LZR was "better than anything seen before" but it left swimmers contracted to other brands with a huge dilemma.

VERY SORRY

"I feel very sorry for them," Schubert told reporters. "Do you go for the money or go for the gold?