Speedo LZR Racer Making A Splash

Speedo recently released a new super-speedy swimsuit, the LZR Racer, that has Olympic athletes, officials, and sponsers in a bit of a tizzy. Co-designed with NASA, "Speedo claims it makes swimmers go two percent faster."

Since the suit was unveiled in February, 19 long-course world records have been set and four short-course marks. The new Speedo suit has been worn in all but one of the 23 records.

Sounds great, right? The problem is that some athletes are sponsored by, and therefore contractually obligated to wear, other brands such as Nike.

Schubert said he will go so far as to recommend that every American wear the Speedo suit at the U.S. Olympic trials in June -- even if they are sponsored by another company.

"I would strongly advise them to wear the suit at trials, or they may end up at home watching on NBC," Schubert said. "Do you go for the money or for the gold? These athletes have been dreaming about winning an Olympic medal since they were eight or 10 years old and nobody can afford to give up two percent."

Four prominent Americans are sponsored by Nike -- Brendan Hansen, Aaron Piersol, Jason Lezak and Kaitlin Sandeno.

The Italians wear Arena and the Japanese use Mizuno.

FINA is due to meet with swimsuit manufacturers on Saturday, and there are no plans to ban the LZR. Other companies are clearly behind.

Read more at CNN.com.

Click here to see what the International Swimming Federation has to say about the suit.

For more LZR news, go here, here, and here.