It’s been a long time since Olympic men’s swimmers ditched the briefs-type Speedos in favor of tight mid-thigh trunks and it had nothing to do with the skimpy suits being thought of as “gay.” It’s all about high-tech material, less drag in the water and performance in a sport where hundreds of a second are often the difference between a gold medal and no medal.
For a while, the guys wore full-body suits, but those were banned to avoid a high-tech suit race in the water where the next logical choice would have been to add fins. Swimmers now wear jammers that are so tight that the athletes readily admit to peeing in the pool because they are such a pain to get on and off.
“The world changed for me,” U.S. Olympian Zach Harting told the Wall Street Journal. “Every time I went to a pool after that, I only considered myself to have swam in it if I peed in it.”
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Pee that as it may, while we can moan the absence of briefs, take heart in knowing that male divers and water polo players still wear them.
In watching the Team USA 4×100-meter freestyle relay team of Chris Guiliano, Jack Alexy, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel win the gold, it was interesting that swimmers wore suits from different companies (Speedo and Tyr are visible). I would have thought they’d be uniform, but obviously it’s the performance that counts.
And as these photos show, the jammers still look good on Olympic swimmers, ultra-fit athletes in their prime. These guy could wear just about anything and look good.
