Zhang Lin first attracted people’s attentions in world swimming in the long-distance 800 meter freestyle event. In Barcelona 2003 World Championship, Zhang Lin got 8th place, which is China’s first man to enter the world event first 8 in long distance freestyle. After that Zhang Lin entered more freestyle events in the world games. Every time he would at least make into one freestyle final, but he missed the 800 meters in the last 2 championships.
On the first day of the competition, in 400 meters freestyle, Park Taehwan was knocked out in the preliminary. Zhang Lin had a good opportunity to win a gold. But Paul Biedermann of Germany broke the 7 years-old world record with 3:40.07 and won gold. Zhang (3:41.35) came in third.
Park Taehwan did not enter 800 meter freestyle, Zhang Lin’s main competition is Ous Mellouli. Zhang Lin swam a 7:48.75 in the preliminary, which is his personal best, but he was only ranked 6th place in preliminaries.
Zhang Lin controlled his rhythm in the finals, after the first 300 meters he was already leading Melouli. But two men were in close distance until the last 100 meters, Zhang Lin finished race with the world record and won gold.
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Lin did not wear the “LZR Racer” provided by Speedo – the sponsor of China Swim Team, but he chose “Jaked 01” It was a free sample Jaked gave to the swimmers.
Zhang Lin was considered of sponsorship, he blacked out Jacked swimsuit logo in the final, but if inspect closely it is not difficult to tell he was indeed wearing Jaked 01.
Why did he change swimsuit at the last minute? A simple statically fact tells us, until July 29th 1 pm, the same time as Zhang Lin’s final, in this world championship, there are 6 swimmers in 7 events broke the world record 9 times, and most of the 6 people wore “Arena X-Glide”, 2 swimmers wore “Jaked 01”. Only one person wore “Speedo”. Also when Speedo image spokesperson Michael Phelps lost his race, his coach complained about Arena and other swimsuit said “if we do not ban these swimsuit immediately, Michael Phelps will leave the world swimming forever”. From these it is obvious, Speedo swimsuit is at a disadvantage in this world championship.
The current world record so far (as at 13 o’clock on the 29th Beijing time)
Events |
Swimmers |
New World Record |
Former world record |
Swimsuit |
Men’s 400m freestyle |
Paul Biedermann |
3:40.07 |
3:40.08 |
Arena X-Glide |
men’s 200 meters freestyle |
Paul Biedermann |
1:42.00 |
1:42.96 |
Arena X-Glide |
Women’s 100-meter butterfly |
Sarah Sjostrom |
56 seconds 06 (the semi-final 56 seconds 44) |
56秒61 56 seconds 61 |
Arena X-Glide |
women’s 200 meters individual medley |
Kukors Ariana |
2:06.15 (the semi-final 2:07.03) |
2:08.45 |
Jaked |
women’s 400 meters freestyle |
Federica Pellegrini |
3:59.15 |
4:00.41 |
Jaked |
men’s 100 meters breaststroke |
Brenton Rickard |
58 seconds 58 |
58 seconds 91 |
Speedo |
Women’s 100m breaststroke |
Rebecca Soni |
1:04.84 |
1:05.09 |
Arena X-Glide |
“Our swimsuit maybe still behind” Chinese swim team coach compares Speedo with Jaked, “We have already tried Jaked swimsuits they are indeed not bad, feels like there is more buoyancy. Therefore we have decided to try it in the finals.” While the former head coach pointed out the best attribute of Jaked swim suit made of synthetic materials “The use of synthetic materials can make up for a athlete’s technical flaws, some of the swimmers weight more, and their body is lower, it is not easy to push their body out of the water and this swimsuit improves their body positions”.
To Zhang Lin, switching swim suit is obvious, he wore Speedo in the preliminary, only swam 5th place with 7:48.75; in the finals, he swam 16 seconds faster. Other than the fact of swimmer usually swims faster in the finals, switching swimsuit might be an important factor, and it is also a great strategic win for the Chinese coaches.
4 comments
performance enhancing drugs. you just don’t go from back or middle of pack to sudden world record holder because you picked the right suit.
I just ran across your posting and have been browsing along. I thought I would leave my very first comment given it truly caught my attention. I may drop back again quite often to check for new content.
The Caucasians banned this suit from competitive use soon after this Asian guy broke the World Record with it, and this after a bunch of Caucasian people had already broke a bunch of World Records with it. This is a very poignant assessment of how Caucasians and their western hegemony plays the role in racial relationships. What is really funny however, is the fact that the only Men’s Swimming World Record NOT broken by these Arena-Jaked-Speedo hi-tech suits was the Men’s 1500-meter…….. which was broken just a month ago by Chinese teenager man Sun Yang, wearing standard swimsuit. All this Caucasian hegemony cheating with technology and Free Media grand-stand abusing had boiled down this LOLMAO!!!!!!!!
Agree. Nobody complains about tech-suit in 2008, in 2009 everyone loses their minds.