Speedo's space-age bodysuit helps swimmers break records but other
manufacturers say it breaks the rules.

 OTAGO UNIVERSITY, OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND VNR -

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.
    The suit has drawn mixed responses from swimmers, some suggesting its
benefits were being exaggerated, others hailing it as pioneering sports
technology.
    Michael Phelps, winner of six gold medals at the Athens Olympics said
earlier this year: "It is like a spacesuit. I mean you feel like you're
getting shot up into space every time I push off the wall."
    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say records cannot be rescinded and it is too late for it to be banned.
    But other swimwear manufacturers say their suits are only inferior
because they had followed the rules concerning materials set by swimming's
world governing body FINA.  FINA have stood by their decision to approve the
LZR, which has had no independent testing, saying the suit was legal and
Speedo's competitors had misinterpreted the rules.
    FINA said the word "fabric" could also mean non-woven
materials, such as neoprene and polyurethane, as used in the Speedo suit.