Nobody can yet match Speedo’s roster of athletes (that includes Michael Phelps and Ryan Locthe, the two greatest swimmers in the world right now), but Arena is certainly make a huge splash. They announced today that they have added Dutch sprint superstar Ranomi Kromowidjojo to their lineup of sponsored athletes.
Kromowidjojo is only 20-years old, but is already hailed around the world as the best sprinter in the game today. She is a part of 3 World Record setting relays (the 400 free relay long course, and the 200 and 800 free relays short course) and has a total of 10 European Championships (short course and long course) to her name. In 2010, she ended the long course season with the world’s fastest 100m free time and second-fastest 50m free time, and carried home individual World Championships in both the 50 and 100 freestyles in Dubai. At only 20-years old, she’s got a ton of room to grow in this sport (I hope for her sake that the contract has an escalation clause, because she’s going to blow up after the 2012 Olympics).
Kromowidjojo joins her Dutch teammate and fellow all-world sprinter Inge Dekker under the 3-diamonds. It’d be an interesting exercise to pit each of the major suit manufacturers’ athletes against each other in a tri-meet format, just for fun. Hey…good idea…(stay tuned).
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Suit company teams were a part of my proposal for a tech league. I hope the wink at the end means you are taking it in a new direction. I would love to see that happen.