Changes in Swimming Record History If Super Suits Never Existed: The Past 15 Years

Courtesy: Nick Starcevich

The past decade and a half has been slow in swimming since there haven’t been many record-breaking performances compared to what was happening in the 2000s. Only when the 2023 World Championships came was it that we finally started to see an uptick in record count again. However, reality shows that swimming has always been fast and has been getting faster over time.

This raises the question of why almost no records were broken in swimming throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, as the graphic below shows. If you know anything about swimming in 2008 and 2009, you know exactly why we didn’t see many records: the super-suit era.

In 2008, Speedo released the LZR Racer, which revolutionized tech suits by strategically placing polyurethane panels on their former FS Fastskin Pro (covering about 40% of the suit) and introducing bonded seams as opposed to the stitched seams tech suits had before the LZR Racer. This revolution led to an onslaught of world records being broken in 2008, especially at the Olympics in Beijing.

The following year, leading up to the 2009 World Championships, other swim companies discovered that covering tech suits completely in polyurethane is even faster than what Speedo had done with strategic placement of panels. Polyurethane makes these suits faster since it is non-permeable, traps air, and increases buoyancy. It also made these suits faster because the polyurethane suit was incredibly compressive around the entire body, locking your body in a plastic shell to keep it in line, reducing lateral movements and the need for superb core strength. Combining these two details allows the swimmer to swim with the perfect body position, a crucial detail to swim your fastest.

Since the polyurethane suits assisted swimmers in getting the perfect body position, some swimmers with better body position and core strength were affected less by the super suits than others. In particular, you have more resistance to overcome when you go faster. Suppose you are a bigger, more muscular person. That’s harder to do in that case since you have a larger surface area to swim against with even more drag to overcome. These polyurethane suits put those big, powerful, muscular swimmers into the perfect body position like their skinnier counterparts, who can do it much easier without the suits. Thus, now that with the suits, slim and muscular swimmers were even in body position. Those bigger, more powerful swimmers could use their strength to fly past their competitors, and this is why the suits affected some people more than others (and surprisingly, is also likely the reason why the men’s freestyle events are still littered with super suit records since at the time those swimmers were quite muscular).

With these suits allowing some people to swim so perfectly and much easier, the stage was set for the “plastic games” of 2009 in Rome. For the first and only time in history, over 60 world records were broken in 2009, and far more world records were broken than in any year ever. Since so many of these records were set with an unfair advantage for people, whether they were affected more by the suits or if they were wearing a superior super-suit to another (i.e., full polyurethane vs. LZR Racer), World Aquatics (at the time FINA) banned the suits at the beginning of 2010, leaving the record books stagnant for years. This is why we saw an inactive record period in the 2010s and early 2020s. Even today, the men’s long course world records are littered with super-suit era records.

With more and more people saying that swimming has finally caught up to the super suit era, these super suit records have set an excellent goal for swimmers to reach. However, to this day, people argue about whether these records should be removed from the books altogether to shine a light on so many notable swims that likely would have been world records throughout the 2010s if all the records in 2008 and 2009 hadn’t been swimming in the super suits. This is controversial since although super-suits heavily aided those records from 2008 and 2009, many of those swims would have still been world records without the suits, mainly since the suits affected some swimmers more than others. Since getting rid of all the records would be controversial and keeping all of them in the record books as we do now is also controversial, what other options do we have?

We could find a theoretical balance between the two options, but how? As we’ve described, super suits gave an advantage, so let’s try to find this theoretical balance by creating super suit-adjusted times, where we subtract a particular amount of time off each super-suited record and see how this would change the recorded history since 2008 (pre-super suit era).

Remember that this is all theoretical and isn’t a perfect option to implement, just like the other two options already discussed. The methods used to find the amount subtracted could also be improved (and I would love to see someone with access to the missing data do this). These details are outlined in the methodology and calculations, which explain exactly how I obtained the subtracted times and all my calculations for the different events and suits.

Also, keep in mind that the purpose of doing this isn’t to change record history (since this is a generalization and there are unmeasurable factors like how good a particular person swam on a specific day) but to shed light on how fast the 2010s and early 2020s were since the super-suit records have blinded us. That being said, the methods used still give us a great idea of what the previous decade through today would have looked like if the records from the super-suit era weren’t swum with super-suits. Enjoy the results!

Overall Changes to World Record Count by year:

• 2008: -42
• 2009: -38
• 2010: +13
• 2011: +16
• 2012: +27
• 2013: +12
• 2014: +6
• 2015: +5
• 2016: +7
• 2017: +9
• 2018: +3
• 2019: +3
• 2020: 0
• 2021: +4
• 2022: +2
• 2023: +1
• 2024: +1

We can collect key findings from the changed record count graphic above. The most glaring difference from the actual record count graphic by year is that 2008 and 2009 don’t stick out as much; in fact, 2008 fits in with the years around it in terms of record count. 2009 is still relatively high, but this could be explained by the confidence the super-suits instilled in swimmers. However, it’s impossible to say for sure. Another notable difference is that the average number of records per year before and after 2008/09 seems similar. In contrast, the average count is lower in the actual record counts after 2008/09. One final thing of note here is that this graphic shows how ridiculously fast 2012 was.

• See the methodology and calculations here.

Now, let’s summarize how each event’s record history would change. If you’re curious, here’s a complete list of the actual and changed record history.

Men’s 50 Free: Alexander Popov’s record from 2000 would’ve stood until Eamon Sullivan would have broken it at the 2008 Australian Olympic Trials with his 21.28, which with these calculations converts to a 21.54. The record history would then remain with Frederick Bousquet going a converted 21.40 and Cesar Cielo going a converted 21.37 (which is the current world record that is a 20.91). This record would only stand until 2010 when Frederick Bousquet would have broken it at the 2010 European Championships instead of Cielo’s mark still standing today. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 50 Free: Inge de Bruijn’s record from 2000 wouldn’t have been broken until Britta Steffen would have broke it at the 2009 World Championships with her 23.73, which with these calculations converts to 24.06. This record would only stand until 2012 when Ranomi Kromowidjojo would have broken it at the 2012 Olympics instead of Steffen’s mark lasting until 2017 when Sarah Sjostrom broke the record. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 100 Free: Pieter van den Hoogenband’s record from 2000 wouldn’t have been broken until Alain Bernard would have tied i,t and then in the following heat, Eamon Sullivan would have broken it in the semifinals at the 2008 Olympics with his 47.05, which with these calculations converts to 47.69. This record would only stand until 2011 when James Magnussen would have broken it at the 2011 World Championships instead of Cielo’s mark from 2009 lasting until 2022 when David Popovici broke the record. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 100 Free: Britta Steffen’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until she would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with her 52.22 which with these calculations converts to a 53.01. This record would only stand until 2012 when Ranomi Kromowidjojo would have broken it at the 2012 Swim Cup Eindhoven meet instead of Steffen’s mark from 2009 lasting until 2016 when Cate Campbell broke the record. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 200 Free: Michael Phelps’ record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Paul Biedermann would have broken it at the World Championships in 2009 with his 1:42.00 which with these calculations converts to 1:43.63. This record would only stand until 2012 when Yannick Agnel would have broken it at the 2012 Olympic Games instead of Biedermann’s mark still standing today. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 200 Free: Laure Manaudou’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Federica Pellegrini would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with her 1:53.67 which with these calculations converts to 1:55.27. The record history would then remain with Pellegrini going a converted 1:54.58 (from her 1:52.98) This record would only stand until 2012 when Allison Schmitt would have broken it at the 2012 Olympics instead of Pellegrini’s mark standing until 2023. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 400 Free: Ian Thorpe’s record from 2002 wouldn’t have been broken until… NEVER!!! Ian Thorpe’s record from 2002 would still be standing in 2025.

Women’s 400 Free: Laure Manaudou’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Federica Pellegrini would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with her 3:59.15, which with these calculations converts to 4:01.73. This record would only stand until 2012 when Camille Muffat would have broken it at French Nationals instead of Pellegrini’s mark standing until 2014. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 800 Free: Grant Hackett’s record from 2005 wouldn’t have been broken until Sun Yang would have broken it at the World Championships in 2011 with his 7:38.57 in contrast to Zhang Lin’s 2009 record still standing today. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 800 Free: Janet Evans’ record from 1989 wouldn’t have been broken until Katie Ledecky would have broken it at the 2012 Olympics with her 8:14.63 in contrast to Rebecca Adlington’s 2008 record lasting until 2014 when Ledecky broke it. Ledecky’s new 2012 record would also be broken by her 2014 swim!

Men’s 1500 Free: The record history would remain the same for this event as there was never a super-suited record. (Grant Hackett was just that good.)

Women’s 1500 Free: The record history would remain the same for this event as there was never a super-suited record. (Kate Ziegler was just that good)

Men’s 50 Back: The record history would remain through the super-suit era with Liam Tancock swimming a 24.30 instead of 24.04. His record would then be broken the next year by Camille Lacourt instead of lasting until 2018 when Kliment Kolesnikov broke it. After Camille Lacourt‘s new record, the record history would then follow the best textile times.

Women’s 50 Back: Yang Li’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Sophie Edington at the 2008 Australian Championships with her 27.67 which with these calculations converts to a 27.93. This record then wouldn’t be broken until Daniela Samulski would break it at the 2009 World Championships with her 27.39 converting to a 27.90. The last super-suited record set by Zhao Jing clocking 27.06 would be converted to a 27.57. This record would only stand until 2010 when Gao Chang would have broken it at Chinese Nationals instead of Jing’s mark lasting until 2018. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 100 Back: Aaron Peirsol’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until he would have broken it himself at the 2009 US National Championships with his 51.94, which with these calculations converts to 52.58. This record would only stand until 2010 when Camille Lacourt would have broken it at the European Championships instead of Peirsol’s mark standing until 2016. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 100 Back: Natalie Coughlin’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Kirsty Coventry would have broken it at the 2008 Olympics with her 58.77, which with these calculations converts to 59.41. The record history would then remain in 2009 rounding up the supersuit era with Gemma Spofforth going a converted 58.89 from her 58.12. This record would only stand until 2011 when Sinead Russell would have broken it at the 2011 Canada Cup instead of Spofforth’s mark lasting until 2017. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 200 Back: Ryan Lochte’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Aaron Peirsol would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with his 1:51.92, which with these calculations converts to a 1:53.50 Instead of this record still standing today, the record would only stand until 2011 when Lochte would have broken it at the 2011 World Championships. With this race from Lochte being the best textile time 13 years later, the record would still stand.

Women’s 200 Back: Krisztina Egerszegi’s record from 1991 wouldn’t have been broken until Kirsty Coventry would have broken it at the 2008 Olympics with her 2:05.24 being converted to 2:06.37. Her super-suited record from 2009 would have also stood with her swimming a converted 2:06.00 at the World Championships. Missy Franklin would have broken it at the 2011 World Championships with her 2:05.90 in contrast to Coventry’s record lasting until 2012 when Franklin broke it at the Olympics.

Men’s 50 Breast: Oleg Lisogor’s record from 2002 wouldn’t have been broken until Cameron van der Burgh would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with his 26.67  which with these calculations converts to a 27.15. This record would only stand until 2011 when he would have broken it at the World Championships instead of his mark from 2009 standing until 2014. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 50 Breast: Jade Edmistone’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Yuliya Efimova would have broken it at the 2010 European Championships with her 30.29 in contrast to Jessica Hardy’s 2009 record lasting until 2013 when Efimova broke it. The record history would then follow the textile best times since then.

Men’s 100 Breast: Brendan Hansen’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Kosuke Kitajima would have broken it at the 2010 Pan Pacs with his 59.04 in contrast to Brenton Rickard’s 2009 record lasting until 2012 when Cameron van der Burgh broke it. The record history would then follow the textile best times since then.

Women’s 100 Breast: Leisel Jones’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Rebecca Soni would have broken it at the 2010 Pan Pacs with her 1:04.93 in contrast to Jessica Hardy’s 2009 record lasting until 2013 when Ruta Meilutyte broke it. The record history would then follow the fastest textile times since then.

Men’s 200 Breast: Brendan Hansen’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Kosuke Kitajima would have broken it at the 2010 Pan Pacs with his 2:08.36 in contrast to Christian Sprenger’s 2009 record lasting until 2012 when Daniel Gyurta broke it. The record history would then follow the textile best times since then.

Women’s 200 Breast: This record history would be unchanged except the records from 2008 and 2009 never would have been records, so Leisel Jones’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Rebecca Soni would have broken it at the 2012 Olympics with her 2:20.00. The record history would then follow the world records since then.

Men’s 50 Fly: The record history would remain through the super-suit era with Rafael Munoz swimming a 22.91 instead of 22.43. His record would then be in 2012 by Cesar Cielo with his 22.76 instead of Munoz’s record lasting until 2018 when Andriy Govorov broke it which of course is where the record stands today.

Women’s 50 Fly: Therese Alshammar’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Jeanette Ottesen would have broken it at the 2012 Maria Lenk Trophy with her 25.29 in contrast to Alshammar’s 2009 record lasting until 2014 when Sarah Sjostrom shattered it by eight tenths with her 24.24 which is where the record still stands today.

Men’s 100 Fly: Ian Crocker’s record from 2005 wouldn’t have been broken until Michael Phelps would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with his 49.82 which with these calculations converts to a 50.38. This record would only stand until 2017 when Caeleb Dressel would have broken it at the World Championships in prelims, semis, and again in finals instead of Phelps’ mark from 2009 standing until 2019 when Dressel would have broken it either way. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 100 Fly: Inge de Bruijn’s record from 2000 wouldn’t have been broken until Dana Vollmer would have broken it at the 2011 World Champs with her 56.47 in contrast to Sarah Sjostrom’s 2009 record lasting until 2012 when Vollmer broke it at the 2012 Olympics. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 200 Fly: This record history would be unchanged except the records from 2008 and 2009 never would have been records, so Michael Phelps’ record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Kristof Milak would have broken it at the 2019 World Championships with his 1:50.73. The record history would then follow the world records since then.

Women’s 200 Fly: Jessicah Schipper’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until Liu Zige would have broken it at the 2009 Chinese National Games with her 2:01.81 which with these calculations converts to a 2:03.83. Liu’s record would have lasted until the 2024 Olympics when Summer McIntosh would have set a new record with her 2:03.03. The record history would then follow the world records since then.

Men’s 200 IM: Michael Phelps’ record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Ryan Lochte would have broken it at the 2010 Pan Pac Championships with his 1:54.43 in contrast to Lochte’s 2009 record lasting until 2011 when he broke it at the 2011 Worlds. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 200 IM: Wu Yanyan’s record from 1991 wouldn’t have been broken until Stephanie Rice would have tied it at the 2008 Olympics with her 2:08.45 being converted to a 2:09.72. That record would finally be broken in 2009 with Ariana Kukors where both of her supersuited records from 2009 would have also stood with her swimming a converted 2:08.06 at world championships to finish out 2009. Ye Shiwen would have broken Kukors’ record at the 2012 Olympics with her 2:07.57 in contrast to Kukors’s record lasting until 2015 when Katinka Hosszu broke it at Worlds.

Men’s 400 IM: Michael Phelps’ record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Ryan Lochte would have broken it at the 2012 Olympics with his 4:05.18 in contrast to Phelps’ 2008 record lasting until 2023 when Leon Marchand broke it at the 2023 World Championships. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 400 IM: Katie Hoff’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until Stephanie Rice would have broken it at the 2008 Olympics with her 4:29.45 which with these calculations converts to a 4:32.45. This record would only stand until 2011 when Elizabeth Beisel would have broken it at the World Championships instead of Rice’s mark from 2008 standing until 2012 when Ye Shiwen would have broken it. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay: The United States’s record from 2004 wouldn’t have been broken until they would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with their 3:27.28 which with these calculations converts to a 3:30.42. This record would only stand until 2012 when they would have broken their 2009 record themselves at the 2012 Olympics instead of their mark from 2009 lasting until 2021 when they broke it at the 2021 Olympics. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay: Australia’s record from 2007 still would have been broken at the 2008 Olympics by themselves with their 3:52.69 which with these calculations converts to a 3:55.33. This record would stick through 2009 but only stand until 2010 when the United States would have broken it at the 2010 Pan Pacs instead of China’s 2009 mark lasting until 2012 when the US broke China’s record. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 4×100 Free Relay: The United States’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until they broke it at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 with the “Lezak relay” (instead of also breaking it in prelims) which with these calculations converts to a 3:10.80 from its current 3:08.24. This record would only stand until 2012 when the United States would have broken it at the 2012 Olympics instead of the “Lezak relay” still standing today. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 4×100 Free Relay: Germany’s record from 2006 wouldn’t have been broken until the Netherlands would have broken it at the 2009 World Championships with their 3:31.72 which with these calculations converts to a 3:34.88. This record would only stand until 2011 when they would have broken their 2009 record themselves at the 2011 World Championships instead of their mark from 2009 lasting until 2014 when Australia broke the record. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Men’s 4×200 Free Relay: The United States’s record from 2007 wouldn’t have been broken until they broke it at the World Championships in 2011 with a 7:02.67. The record history would then continue to follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

Women’s 4×200 Free Relay: The record history through 2009 would remain the same here with China’s 2009 world championships relay of 7:42.08 converting to a 7:48.48. This record would only stand until 2011 when the United States would have broken the record at the 2011 World Championships instead of China’s mark from 2009 lasting until 2019 when Australia broke the record. The record history would then follow the best textile suit times ever since then.

ABOUT NICK STARCEVICH

Nick is a junior at St. Olaf College pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a concentration in statistics and data science. He is currently a member of the Men’s Swimming and Diving team for St. Olaf College. Being interested in data and its variety of applications, Nick ponders data related questions frequently, especially in a discipline like swimming being flooded with all kinds of information.