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Disappointingly it appears that speedo style swimwear has almost completely disappeared from men's swimming at this Olympics, I've only seen jammers on the swimmers so far. Thankfully the water polo and diving competitors are still committed to the cause.

Anyone have any particular rooting interests? Good to see Tom Daley finally grab a gold medal.

Tom Daily was certainly looking good

T88 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:15 pm

Tom Daily was certainly looking good

<sigh> He always does.

Certainly had my attention

speed-oh wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:23 pm

Disappointingly it appears that speedo style swimwear has almost completely disappeared from men's swimming at this Olympics, I've only seen jammers on the swimmers so far. Thankfully the water polo and diving competitors are still committed to the cause.

Practice in briefs, race in skins (racing suits). You don't race in briefs at the Olympics and probably not at the qualification meets either. Skins (race suits) are considered superior over human skin for water resistance. A person racing in skins would have an advantage over someone racing in briefs. Full body skins (like the ones Phelps wore years ago when he won his first medals) are banned by FINA because they were too good. Now they are only Jammer length. Women get to wear skins that have more coverage but cannot wear full body skins anymore.

Diving is completely different. Divers wear briefs for mobility. They don't need extra coverage for speed and don't want the longer length suits to effect moves during the dive.

rmf wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:42 am

Diving is completely different. Divers wear briefs for mobility. They don't need extra coverage for speed and don't want the longer length suits to effect moves during the dive.

Thank god for that. And thank god they still wear speedos in water polo, too.

Can't remember the last time I saw Speedo briefs at the olympics. I think 1996 would have been the last time everybody wore briefs to race in. They'll never switch for diving or waterpolo though, for practical reasons.

swimmer3333 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:24 am

Can't remember the last time I saw Speedo briefs at the olympics. I think 1996 would have been the last time everybody wore briefs to race in. They'll never switch for diving or waterpolo though, for practical reasons.

That sounds about right, mid-90s. I remember the last ones had really narrow sides. I forget when the "paper" suits were used in competition. Very thin material worn super-tight. But then they invented fabrics that were slicker in water than human skin. They went to full body suits that were later banned by FINA, and now jammers in tech fabrics are the max for male competition.

swimmer3333 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:24 am

Can't remember the last time I saw Speedo briefs at the Olympics. I think 1996 would have been the last time everybody wore briefs to race in. They'll never switch for diving or waterpolo though, for practical reasons.

Closer to 1992 timeframe. Swimswam's blog has talked about it over the years but they put out a decent summary of the race suits last year in preparation for Tokyo.

https://swimswam.com/20-years-of-speedo-fastskin/

rmf wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 02, 2021 11:22 am

swimmer3333 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:24 am

Can't remember the last time I saw Speedo briefs at the Olympics. I think 1996 would have been the last time everybody wore briefs to race in. They'll never switch for diving or waterpolo though, for practical reasons.

Closer to 1992 timeframe. Swimswam's blog has talked about it over the years but they put out a decent summary of the race suits last year in preparation for Tokyo.

https://swimswam.com/20-years-of-speedo-fastskin/

That's a really good summary. Aquablade originally came in brief form. I'm pretty sure that they featured in that form in the 1996 Atlanta olympics, and I recall the 1500 metre specifically. They continued to use aquablade for a number of years and I've had the brief and jammer for racing. I think you can still find some now.