Zhang Lin Breaks World Record and Swimsuit Matters

[NetEase] In Rome 2009 World Aquatics Championships men’s 800 meter freestyle final, Zhang Lin (张琳) of China swam well, with 7 minutes and 32 seconds he broke Australian Swimmer Hackett’s 7 minutes and 38 seconds world record by 7 seconds. He becomes the first Chinese Men’s swimmer to win World Championship gold medal. Ous Mellouli from Tunisia came in second with 7 minutes and 35 seconds and Canadian Ryan Cochrane won bronze medal with 7 minutes and 41 seconds.

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 8^th 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 6^th 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.

Swimsuit matters

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 29^th 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 5^th 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.

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