Stephanie Rice, triple Olympic gold medal winner, weighs into the suits debate in the dying days of an era she is glad to see the back of. ``I really have not liked the suits,'' Rice tells the Aussie media. "They're so over. I can't understand why some people are still wearing them.''
In domestic racing this week, Rice, double Olympic medley champ, wore textile and was beaten in both her keys events. No worries. "I would prefer to go slower here and build my races towards trials than go really awesome and then not wear the suits any more and go downhill,'' Rice said. "I need to see those drops in times and feel easier.
She said of suits: "It has especially helped out people who aren't as efficient swimmers and who don't have good skills,'' Rice said. "I am pretty good underwater and you don't get those benefits any more because the suits bring you up to par with the people who do have good skills. And I usually come up in front in the dive and when everyone comes up together it's like 'great'. My advantages weren't really advantages any more.''
Poly had been a downer. "Mentally it's really hard for me to actually race in them because I feel like I'm carrying so much water, it doesn't feel like my stroke but then I'll do a good time and I'll be like, 'Oh, I guess I did pretty good then','' she said.
Rice did not see that there was much wrong with the LZR Racer that she wore to Olympic glory, though she acknowledged that it had led to waters that got even murkier. A little self-serving that one. Doubtless, Rice will recall that her former boyfriend and teammate, Eamon Sullivan clocked 21.56sec on 50m free on feb 17, 2008 in a LZR. His previous bets had been 22.02 The mark had stood to Alex Popov at 21.64. Just five weeks later, Sullivan had taken the world mark down to 21.28, the 15th world record set in a Soeedo LZR Racer in February and March, 2008. The suit was significant - to Rice too: On March 22, 2008, she clocked 4:31.46, a world record, over 400m medley. Her previous best? 4:37.18.
The 2009 100% poly suits took advantage (advantage uneven across the spectrum of swimmers with different skills, morphologies and physiologies) even further. "Even though I did a 2min 7.3sec for my 200IM in Rome, which is like a second and a half faster than I did (her world record time 2:08.45s) in Beijing, I just felt like it was just so much worse,'' said Rice. "I didn't feel like I deserved to go that fast.''
Nicole Jeffery at The Australian was first with the tale and this followed from Alex Murdoch at the Herald Sun.
