US swimmer Missy Franklin competes in the women's 200m freestyle semi-final swimming event at the London 2012 Olympic Games, July 30, 2012.
The full body suits you saw at the 2008 Beijing Olympics are now outlawed by FINA, the governing body of swimming, because they felt they compromised the integrity of the sport, giving wearers extra speed buoyancy and endurance. So Speedo redesigned the suits the Olympic (and some Paralympic) swimmers wore this time around to comply with new guidelines. The Fastskin3 and the LZR Elite, which compress the body to make the most hydro-dynamic shape, as well as reducing skin friction drag, can be picked up for women ($595) and for men ($395). But unless you have a corporate sponsor, you may just buy some of Speedo’s lower end gear; they’ve got a style similar to the men’s jammers at $52, albeit in a fabric that won’t give you Olympic acceleration.
If you like the shape of the women’s knee-length suits, you can approximate it with this Sporti model or wait until next spring, when Speedo plans to launch, by popular demand, a lower-priced women’s kneeskin suit. When trying on the suit, or any other women’s model, Speedo says you want to feel compressed. To get the proper fit, women should be able to lift the shoulder strap to their earlobe. Any lower than the earlobe, and the suit will be too restricting, any higher, and the too-loose suit will capture water in the pool