High-tech swimsuits the rage for Jackets

Tonight, Mickey Malul will squeeze into his $550 high-tech swimsuit to swim for Georgia Tech at the ACC championships.

He will have a $79 hotel room to thank for it.

By saving on hotel rooms and buses, and sometimes sleeping three swimmers to a room, the Jackets carved room in their budget to afford a virtually essential piece of equipment —- the Speedo LZR Racer suit, made famous by Michael Phelps at the Beijing Olympics.

Bunking three to a room “wasn’t bad, because most of us already spend so much time together,” said Mauricio Sousa, school-record holder in the 50-yard freestyle. “At this stage right now, it is definitely that important.”

The advantage of the LZR Racer and others like it is beyond debate. Of the 108 world records broken in 2008, 79 reportedly were set by swimmers in the LZR Racer.

Last week, Tech’s women’s team broke 10 school records at the ACC meet. In a sport where records are generally lowered by hundredths or tenths of a second, Brittany Gobat smashed Tech’s six-year-old school mark in the 200 breaststroke by four seconds.

“The way you can look at it is, the swimming world, with these new suits, we’ve gone through kind of a revolution,” said Malul, ranked seventh in the world in the short-course 50-meter breaststroke. “If you don’t have the suit, you’re at a disadvantage.”

For Tech and other schools, part of the challenge was that the NCAA approved the LZR and other suits in September, well after they had submitted their budgets for the year. Wilson said he told administrators that “we don’t have a choice” but to get the suits. To equip the 23 swimmers Tech has taken to both ACC meets, the cost was about $9,000, coach Stu Wilson said, thanks to a discount from Speedo. Without extra room in the budget, Wilson cut costs elsewhere, finding cheaper hotel rooms and the like, to pay for the suits.

The Jackets are among the fortunate to have suits, as demand has outstripped supply. Even powerhouse Georgia’s men’s and women’s teams were unable to secure enough LZR suits for the whole team for last week’s SEC championships. The Bulldogs bought suits from multiple companies for the meet, where the women finished third and the men took fourth.

Emory, whose men’s and women’s teams have finished in the top four of the Division III championships every year since 2001, was the only team at its conference meet without the cutting-edge suits. Emory’s swimmers, who still managed to win their conference meets, will have to pay for their own suits for their NCAA meet. Because of cost and limited availability, coach Jon Howell said “it has not been an equitable process.”

Wilson, who calls himself “old school,” doesn’t like how the suits have changed the sport. But for now, he has little choice. In fact, his next challenge might be procuring more of the suits for the NCAA meet, as the LZR suits have a limited life span.

“Then again, Speedo may not have them,” he said. “Who knows?”

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