Swimming Suits Up for Better Coverage

Usually, it’s what happens after swimmers leave the starting blocks that makes news. But as the nation’s top swimmers train for Olympic trials in Indianapolis next month, pool decks are awash in controversy driven by the appearance of full-body swimsuits that are helping elite athletes smash records.

Oddly enough, many of the nation’s swimmers and suit manufacturers are welcoming the controversy as healthy for a sport that shines every four years--but quickly fades when the Olympic torch is extinguished.

“Everyone is talking about the suits, we’ve got these great American and Australian swim teams and NBC is promising more coverage of swimming than any other sport in Sidney,” said David Rosen, vice president of marketing for Tyr Inc., a Huntington Beach-based swimsuit manufacturer. “It’s a perfectly baked cake on a lot of levels.”

USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body, hopes it finally has the perfect recipe to polish the sport’s image. Almost 58 million Americans count swimming as a recreational option, but that’s down considerably from the 70.5 million that swam in 1989.

Swimming’s role model could be the once-stuffy sport of figure skating, which has parlayed strong viewer interest during the Winter Games into a steady stream of lucrative made-for-television specials.

USA Swimming is giving serious thought to building a temporary pool in New York City’s Central Park, where television cameras next spring could capture Olympic stars going head-to-head. And, many swimmers hope that advertising dollars to be poured into marketing the new suits could help to build interest in their sport.

“We’ve got companies that, with the suits, are infusing more capital into our sport,” said Huntington Beach swimmer Steve West, who has worn a Tyr body suit while training for the upcoming national trials. “We really don’t have equipment, say, a $300 skateboard that looks really cool. So maybe these suits can help from a sports marketing standpoint.”

Sports marketers compare the new, high-tech suits to clap skates, the speed-skating advance that prompted a string of record-shattering performances during the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Such manufacturers as Tyr, Speedo, Adidas and Nike are pouring millions of dollars into research and development to refine fabrics and designs that help swimmers move more efficiently through water.

But plans to market the suits took an unexpected detour in late June when USA Swimming, citing a perceived shortage of the suits, refused to let swimmers wear full-body suits in Indianapolis--even though they will be allowed during the Olympic Games.

Tyr is threatening legal action against USA Swimming. Adidas on Wednesday volunteered to give suits, with a retail value of $160, to every swimmer competing in Indianapolis.

“USA Swimming said the issue was availability, but that isn’t an issue with us,” Adidas spokesman Chris Duplanty said.

Some swimming insiders grumble that the suits--which include full-body as well as cropped and pants-only styles--are too radical to be introduced without further testing.

“Pandora’s Box is open,” said former USC swimming Coach Peter Daland, who retired in 1992 as the NCAA’s most successful coach. “To make a world record is normally a hard thing to do--and to lose a record because someone is 5% faster due to wearing a special suit is wrong, absolutely wrong.”

Manufacturers, though, dismiss the criticism. “The fiberglass pole didn’t kill pole vaulting, clap skates didn’t kill speed skating and the metal tennis racket didn’t kill tennis,” said Stu Isaac, vice president of sales and marketing for Speedo Corp. the nation’s largest swim apparel manufacturer.

Marketers now are honing advertising campaigns that will premiere after the Olympic Games. “It took me two days to understand what the hell it does so I could begin to think about how to explain it,” Tyr’s Rosen said. “You can’t get very far saying ‘it controls the laminar flow of water.’ ”

The suits represent a decided break from the “less is more” theory that’s governed competition swimsuit design in recent decades. Manufacturers dropped “modesty slips” from women’s suits during the late 1960s--and modesty went out the window entirely in 1973 when East Germany’s women swimmers shocked observers by wearing form-fitting tank suits. U.S. swimmers quickly donned the faster suits and began to shatter records.

As the expensive full-body suits move into the retail arena, manufacturers will use the same tools used to sell basketball shoes, hockey sticks and football gear. Speedo, Tyr, Adidas and Nike are scrambling to line up world-class athletes who will wear the suits in Sydney.

But as swimmers cover up, some observers wonder if the sport isn’t undermining a natural attraction--all those finely tuned bodies wearing just the bare essentials. Some fans of the sport also worry that full-body suits, goggles and swim caps will turn easily recognizable swimmers into anonymous athletes.

Irvine Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo points to America’s love affair during the 1996 Atlanta Games with Amanda Beard, the Irvine High School student who won a a silver medal while racing against older, more experienced athletes. “One reason that she was so compelling is that she never wore goggles,” Salo said. “You could see the emotion in her eyes and face, along with the personality behind it. I think fans more naturally gravitate toward that than some bundled-up athlete.”

The full-body suits that will retail for as much as $260 will appeal only to a relative handful of the nation’s 2.2 million competitive swimmers, but less-costly versions will be available. Manufacturers also expect the technology behind the suits to appeal to a wide array of athletes, including sky divers, surfers and triathletes.

Speedo zealously guards its dominant position in the competition swim industry, where it claims about 60% of the market. Privately held Tyr, which doesn’t release financial details, is believed to control about 30% of the market. Newcomers Adidas and Nike also hope to use their full-body suits to gain market share in the U.S.

About 25% of the $1.7 billion spent on swim apparel in 1999 went toward competition gear, according to the National Sporting Goods Assn. But manufacturers expect the new body suits to help set mainstream fashion trends.

Tyr’s traditional suits, for example, have appeared in six Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, including a cover photo. Speedo’s Isaacs reports that Vogue magazine has been calling to set up a fashion shoot.

As far as the controversy, West noted that athletes determine who wins and loses. “As much as parents, coaches, spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends have to say about wanting their athlete to go faster, the ultimate person who decides how fast to go is the athlete. And that’s regardless of what suit they’re wearing or what conditions they’re swimming under.”

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Out of the Pool

American’s interest in swimming has been declining over the last 10 years, according to the National Sporting Goods Assn. survey. The number of people who said they swam at least once during the year, in millions:

1999: 57.9 million swimmers

Source: National Sporting Goods Assn.