Northwestern Study Analyzes Artificial Performance Enhancements

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In high-pressure athletics, competition on a global scale requires every possible edge one can muster. A tenth of a second can make the difference between winning the prize or going home empty-handed. This is why steroids came into use to enhance the human body. However, according to a study from Northwestern University, another enhancement has gone relatively unnoticed while extending a tremendous advantage to the athlete, especially in competitive swimming. In fact, it was the apparel, the high-tech swimsuit that made such a significant contribution to swimming times, that it was banned in 2009.

In high-pressure athletics, competition on a global scale requires every possible edge one can muster. A tenth of a second can make the difference between winning the prize or going home empty-handed. This is why steroids came into use to enhance the human body. However, according to a study from Northwestern University, another enhancement has gone relatively unnoticed while extending a tremendous advantage to the athlete, especially in competitive swimming. In fact, it was the apparel, the high-tech swimsuit that made such a significant contribution to swimming times that it was banned in 2009.

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"Our data strongly indicate that it was more than just hard work that allowed athletes to set the unprecedented 43 world records during the 2009 world championships," said Lanty O'Connor, first author of the study, published in the December 2011 issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. "The swimsuits played a significant role."

After that competition, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) banned the full body poly-urethane swimsuits. Since then only two world records have been broken.

The suits effectively made the human body resemble that of a fish, reducing drag, improving buoyancy, and compressing the muscles to become more streamlined.

The Northwestern researchers analyzed swim race data from 1990 to 2010, comparing improvements in swimming to those of track and field, a similar competitive sport. Other factors were also taken into account, such as gender, training methods, and regulation changes.

After excluding these other factors, the only factor left was the swimsuit. The researchers determined that the change in swimsuit was responsible for many records set in 2009 and the relatively slower swim times since 2010.

"It would be unfair to discredit the dedication and training of these athletes and their coaches, because this certainly played a role in improved performance over the past several decades," O'Connor said. "But many, including FINA, had a strong suspicion that these suits were artificially enhancing performance. Now, nearly two years later, we have the data to show a strong correlation between the use of these suits and improved race times."

The researchers stress that while performance enhancing drugs are important to watch out for, artificial sport enhancements should not be overlooked. Just like what steroids did for home run records in the major leagues (i.e. Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Rodriguez), technical swimsuits did for competitive international swimming. On the positive side, in the future, any swimming records broken that had been set by swimmers using the illegal swimsuits will be all the more impressive.

Link to published study: http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2011/12000/Is_It_the_Athlete_or_the_Equipment__An_Analysis_of.1.aspx

Image credit: Reuters