Just seen a special 2012 Superstars. Ex athlete Iwan Thomas was wearing a slick looking rubberized swimming body suit probably to cover up his tatts. Looks well tight on his body, he is still fit. They said it was illegal for competitions but it I couldn't see any brand like Speedo or Arena. Looked like a ultra thin wetsuit. Anyone know what it is?
47 minutes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pm9nh/Superstars_2012/
Its most likely a TYR Tracer swimsuit (they were generally unbranded or the logo was a transfer and came off like mine did) which stopped being produced a few years back, not least because of the poor fitting neck which bagged out of shape over time (As Iwans appears to have done). I have one from my copetition days before they banned them.
Iwan will have worn one to allow him to glide through the water and reduce drag and reduce splashing. The compression of the suit allows the water to pass over the body with less resistance and also allows quicker oxiganisation of the muscles. It will reduce his swimming time by up to a couple of seconds so he could stay with Rebecca and Michael.These suits were amazing but affected swim time so dramatically that most of the race records set wearing them are still unbeaten, with a couple of London 2012 exeptions.
You may find the odd one of these on ebay but they dont come up for grabs very often and they have issues because of the deteriaration in the rubber and they didnt wash well or handle resudues of chlorine well, hence the replacement by speedo X and the speedo and adidas suits fit better too.