“Shiny suits” still distort the image

After 13 years, Rome is once again the venue for a major swimming event; the 2009 World Cup was followed by the 2022 European Championships. If you compare the final times of the best Europeans at the time with those of the current title holders, one might believe that there is a downward trend. Because in the first eight European Championship finals, only one winning time made the race in 2022. Otherwise, around half a second to a second per 100 m is missing from the World Cup mark. Of course they weren't any better back then, but they had full body suits.

The World Championships at the Foro Italico took place at the height of the “shiny suit” era, as it was called. The suits provided buoyancy and thus also meant that fatigue set in later because of less water resistance. 43 world records were set during the World Cup week. The suits were banned at the end of 2009, but the records remained and exactly eleven of them still stand today. Seven of them come from the Rome World Cup – six for men, one for women.

Only Aaron Peirsol (USA)'s 200 m backstroke (1:51,92) was not fixed in the crawl style. There is Cesar Cielo Filho (BRA) over 100 m (46,91), Paul Biedermann (GER) over 200 (1:42,00) and 400 m (3:40,07), Zhang Lin (CHN) over 800 m (7:32,12), the USA in the 4 x 200 m (6:58,55) and Federica Pellegrini (ITA) in the women's 200 m (1:52,98) are still unmatched. The records of Cielo in the 50 m free crawl (20,91), Michael Phelps (USA) in the 400 m individual medley (4:03,84), the short US free crawl relay (3:08,24) and von Liu Zige (CHN) in the 200 m dolphin (2:01,81). Old world records will remain It will take a while for all of these 2022 Suit-era records to fall. Measured against the annual world best times (JWBZ) 1, Peirsol (JWBZ 54,52:7), Zhang Lin (39,36:2) and Liu Zige (05,20:17) can probably call themselves world record holders for even longer. The men's crawl sections are a lot tighter, and 100-year-old Romanian David Popovici should be able to make a difference. The exceptional talent with the perfect levers already has the chance to set an example for the future and against the past in the 200, 400 and XNUMX m crawl.

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“Shiny suits” still distort the image

Seven world records set with swimming suits from the 2009 World Cup in Rome still exist. A total of eleven world records still exist from the suit era, most of them in the crawl style or for men.

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