The "Golden Age" of Swimming

    Looking at the 1920s as a decade, it's often called the “golden age” of America, where economic prosperity seemed to abound. Innovations began to transform American life, and women began to gain various rights, putting them on more equal footing with men. Culture began to develop, and Jazz music and silent films began to take America by storm. However, beneath this golden veneer, the ugly reality of income inequality, exploitation of workers, and immorality swelled. This “valley of ash” was eventually exposed, in 1929, when the Stock Market crashed, and America entered the Great Depression. This would completely upend the economic prosperity that America had enjoyed so freely prior, and cause the transgressions of the previous decade to be revealed.

The Speedo LZR Racer tech suit being revealed

Although in completely separate circles, a similar story emerges for swimming during the 2000s. Companies like Speedo, Adidas, and TYR, greedy for more sales, looked for ways to create the “perfect swimsuit”, designed to break world records and raise brand awareness. In collaboration with NASA, Speedo would eventually create the LZR Racer, revolutionizing racing suits forever. The LZR racer was a polyurethane suit that covered the swimmer's entire body, and strategically added panels to squeeze the human body into the most optimal shape possible. The issue with these was the fact that they cost a small fortune to obtain and many began to question the morality of using these suits. World records began falling left and right, with even older swimmers coming out of retirement, pulling ridiculous swims, simply by using the LZR Racer Eventually, FINA, the swimming governing body, banned the suits, since the suits blurred the line between whether it was the swimmer or the suit that created the fast times that were seen during this era.