What is a sharkskin swimsuit? If it is the first time to hear this name, I believe many people will think that this is a swimsuit made of shark skin. Unlike what everyone thinks, in fact, the shark skin swimsuit is a high-tech swimsuit that imitates the shark skin, and many athletes have worn shark skin swimsuits to compete in the international arena, and the swimming star Phelps's single Olympic 8 gold is the best proof.
Unfortunately, the sharkskin swimsuit was only developed for four generations and was banned by FINA. In fact, before Phelps shined on the Olympics, Australia's Ian Thorpe had profited from sharkskin swimsuits.
During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Ian Thorpe won three gold medals in the first generation of sharkskin swimsuits, and since then a large number of athletes have followed suit, according to statistics, 83% of athletes wore sharkskin swimsuits at the peak.
In contrast to Ian Thorpe's case, Phelps took the sharkskin swimsuit to a new level. At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Phelps wore a sharkskin swimsuit and won 7 golds.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Phelps once again wore a shark skin swimsuit to compete, and created a feat of 8 gold in a single Olympic Games, which also made more people begin to understand the shark skin swimsuit.
So is the sharkskin swimsuit banned related to Phelps' single Olympic 8 gold? To say that there is no relationship at all, it must be a bit of self-deception, but the shark skin swimsuit is banned, Phelps single Olympic Games 8 gold is not the main reason, after all, our Chinese swimming star Sun Yang has also tried.
In addition to Sun Yang, the Chinese swimming team also purchased a large number of shark skin swimsuits, which were used by athletes in other countries at that time, and if they voluntarily gave up, it would not be a big loss, so every country did not want to lose to their opponents in terms of swimsuits.
The main reason why shark skin swimsuits are banned is that this high-tech swimsuit violates the original intention of competitive sports without the help of external forces, after all, shark skin swimsuits have played a role in reducing water resistance, can help athletes improve their competition performance, and the frequency of world record refreshes is getting faster and faster.
Under the pressure of public opinion, FINA finally made a decision to ban the use of shark skin swimsuits, and stipulated that the material of swimsuits in the future must be textiles. Fortunately, the international swimmer has been spared under the joint efforts, that is, the world record before the sharkskin swimsuit was banned was not invalidated.
The sharkskin swimsuit took only about 10 years from its development to its banning. However, don't underestimate the 10 years, take the third and fourth generation shark skin swimsuits as an example, the third generation of shark skin swimsuits in 1 year (2007) helped athletes break 21 world records, and the fourth generation of swimsuits helped athletes break 14 world records in 1 month.
Many of today's world records in swimming are still created by sharkskin swimsuits at that time. Nowadays, sharkskin swimsuits are banned, and many world records are difficult to break, which is also a pity. But Ian Thorpe and Phelps were lucky, having played in sharkskin swimsuits and winning many Olympic gold medals.
Although the sharkskin swimsuit has fallen to the altar, the sharkskin swimsuit still leaves many athletes with good memories. Athletes who were originally very strong, with the assistance of shark skin swimsuits, have become a generation of swimming legends.
However, for the new generation of swimmers, it is not fair, after all, shark skin swimsuits are now impossible to use, which also increases the difficulty of the new generation of swimmers to break the world record!