Matt Slater - BBC Web site 1st June 09

For Olympians, the year after a Games is traditionally a time for chocolate, proper holidays and opening school fetes. Some really let themselves go and have a beer every now and then.

With the next peak to climb still three and a bit years away, the first quarter of an Olympiad is not the time for heroics in the gym, hall or stadium.

The pool, however, appears to be a different kettle of fish, as the world's finest swim suits have been racking up records like superstar DJs. The Arena X-Glide is making the most waves so far in 2009 with seven world bests, two more than its closest challenger, the Jaked 01.

Speedo's LZR Racer, 2008's undisputed champion, has claimed four records but is starting to look tired. Can it bounce back at the Worlds in Rome this summer or will its crown pass to a younger rival?

The answer to that question will be provided not in the Foro Italico's pool but in the laboratory of polymer and composite technology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

Hold on a minute... this is swimming we're talking about, isn't it?

I know an America's Cup isn't settled until the lawyers have had their say, and F1 wouldn't be F1 without at least three trips to an independent wind tunnel. But swimming? Man/woman in water against other men/women in water... what could we possibly over-complicate about that?

Oh dear, where do I start?

The beginning, I suppose, but it's such a saga I'm going to race through the early chapters to get us to the here and now. So apologies, swimsuit anoraks, liberties will be taken.

Once upon a time swimmers took the view that the quickest outfit to wear was the non-fabric, non-permeable one Mother Nature gave them for free - their skin.

OK, social mores demanded a little bit of cover so a compromise between modesty and resistance was needed: this compromise was what Australians call budgie smugglers. Women got a backless leotard with thin straps.

And so things remained until 1996 when swimsuit companies persuaded a few of their stars to don neck-to-knee bodysuits in Atlanta. The suits looked cool but proof of their performance-enhancing abilities was thin on the ground.

There were a few naysayers - purists concerned about the sport's integrity - but swimming's governing body, Fina, wasn't listening and by Sydney, four years later, the outfit of choice was the neck-to-ankle Speedo Fastskin.

The birthday suit was dead, long live the bodysuit.

Not a great deal happened for the next eight years. Every manufacturer brought out a Fastskin of its own and the changes from year to year were largely cosmetic.

And then Speedo stole perhaps the biggest march on its competitors since somebody realised woollen suits got a bit heavy when wet... actually, I think that was Speedo too.

Anyway, the first suit to combine stitch-free, ultra-sonically welded seams, water-resistant fabric and Nasa-designed polyurethane panels, Speedo's LZR sashayed down the catwalk on 13 February, 2008.

Hmmm, thought many seasoned swimwear watchers, if this expensive handful of material is half as quick as it thinks it is we could be in for an interesting year. Their suspicions were soon proved correct.

Fifteen long-course (50m pools) world records went in March and another 18 went at the World Short Course Championships in April. Almost all of these were claimed by LZR-clad swimmers.

Some in the world of swimming, and not just those dressed by Speedo, thought this was a wondrous thing. The sport was making headlines with a hot product and scintillating performances.

But others, and not just those in competition with Speedo, wondered what was happening.

For them the rules (and battle lines) are clear: the only devices allowed are caps and goggles. Flippers, paddles and anything else which provides buoyancy, like a wetsuit, are beyond the pale.

A fierce debate ensued between those who embraced the idea of smart suits and those who wanted them only to spare people's blushes.

That debate is still raging and for far too long Fina said little and did less.

Not, I suspect, because it was in an unholy alliance with Speedo, Mammon and the military-industrial complex, but more probably because it had read the marketing blurbs of umpteen suits over the years and seen that they were never as quick as they said they would be.

The LZR, though, was the real deal and Fina was caught on the hop, its system for approving suits no longer fit for purpose. This forgivable mistake was compounded by an inability to deal with rapidly-changing situations and a lack of leadership.

The months since then have seen remarkable events in and out of the water.

An unprecedented 108 world records were broken last year, 79 of them by LZR swimmers, including the remarkable Michael Phelps and our very own Becky Adlington.

But the LZR's must-have status was already under pressure by last autumn. Having seen their Olympic models blown out of the water before and during the Beijing Games, Speedo's rivals came back firing and each week seemed to bring a slicker suit. There was no shortage of swimmers willing to try them.

Things were getting out of hand, though. The word on the poolside was that the suits worked because they trapped pockets of air, improving buoyancy and body position. If one offers a 1-2% performance boost, how much better would two be?

Swimmers were seen trying to squeeze into two or even three of that month's suit, while hard-pressed parents were being asked by their swim-club kids for £300 outfits that tear all too easily.

With voices of concern getting louder (particularly from nations which had enjoyed success with the LZR) Fina finally acted.

This February the sport's bosses summoned the manufacturers to a summit in Lausanne. A month later Fina issued preliminary rule changes at a gathering in Dubai: parameters were set on how much flesh could be covered (oh how things have changed), age limits for bodysuits were set and the wearing of multiple suits was banned.

But that left the key question unresolved. Was swimming really happy to become a sport in which equipment plays a significant (perhaps deciding) role?

Erm... no. Well, not in the long run, anyway.

A fortnight ago Fina announced the first results of its assessment of the swimsuit market. That assessment was done by our friends at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and 202 of the 348 suits they tested were approved for use in Rome this summer. That's the good news.

The bad news is that 10 were rejected outright and another 136 sent back because they didn't meet the Dubai rules stating swimsuit material 'shall not be constructed to or include elements/systems which create air/water trapping effects during use'.

The identity of these banned and in-limbo suits was not revealed but the reactions from the companies concerned have given the game away. Italian brand Jaked has had plenty to say, particularly as the LZR is on the approved list.

Arena, on the other hand, has taken Fina's decision to ban its X-Glide with admirable sangfroid. Or perhaps it just produced the X-Glide to prove it too could do crafty things with polyurethane. After all, it never actually put the X-Glide on sale.

What this means for the Worlds is unclear. Fina knows it cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube by July so it is not going to try.

It is, however, steeling itself to make a big statement next year. New suit-approval rules and more detailed regulations on what is permissible are expected on 1 January 2010.

The purists hope this will be when swimming follows what cycling did with its hour record and rolls the technology back, returning swimmers to their briefs and times to a more gradual rate of improvement. Athletics did something similar in 1986 when javelin throws started to threaten spectators as much as the record books.

In the meantime, the manufacturers have until 19 June to resubmit suits they want approved for Rome and most have already started the process.

More worrying is the news the French, Italian and Japanese are talking about ignoring Fina and letting their swimmers wear X-Glides, Jaked 01s and Descentes. So expect a lot more records with asterisks.

Ho hum, at least it's not boring.

Throw in Phelps' return to major competition, the Adlington v Jackson battle of Britain and the next chapter in the Tom Daley story and you're looking at a Fina event that might generate more headlines than the world championships of its Olympic rival, the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Not bad for a sport that has struggled for media exposure over the years. Perhaps Fina knew what it was doing all along?