WET SUIT EFFECT - A COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPETITIVE SWIMMERS AND TRIATHLETES

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the wet suit e ffect on 8 swimmers and 8 triathletes. For swimmers, the performances of a 400-m swim with and without wet suit were not statistically diffe rent (4 min 12.5 +/- 8 s vs 4 min 13.9 +/- 4 s) while for triathletes the swim times were reduced by 19 s (4 min 45.8 +/- 34 s vs 5 min 04.7 +/- 30 s, P < 0.01). For swimmers, VO2max and blood lactate measured with the wet suit were lower than without (P < 0.01), while for triath letes stroke rate was significantly higher with the wet suit (P < 0.01 ). For the whole group, the individual differences of performance were related to the blood lactate differences (r = -0.68; P < 0.01) and to the hydrostatic lift (r = 0.63; P < 0.01). For swimmers, the energy c ost of swimming and the gliding ability were not statistically differe nt with or without wet suit, while for triathletes they were significa ntly lower and decreased with velocity. It is concluded that the wet s uit effect improves performance more in inefficient swimmers with low buoyancy, swimming at low speeds.