Kitajima underlined his demands to be allowed to wear the LZR by wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "I am the swimmer" and other swimmers are weighing their options with less fanfare.
Austria's Mirna Jukic prepares to swim in her LZR Speedo suit in the Women's 200m Breaststroke on the fifth day of the world short course swimming championships in Manchester, northern England in this file image from April 13, 2008. [Agencies] |
Shares in Mizuno, which last year ended a licensing tie-up with Speedo after more than 40 years, fell 2.8 percent the day after Kitajima broke the 200-meter breaststroke world record after finally being allowed to wear an LZR suit this month.
Shares in Asics <7936.T> lost 3.6 percent. Mizuno, Asics and Descente <8114.T>, the suppliers approved by the Japanese federation, unveiled hastily designed suits in late May in an attempt to prevent defections by Japanese swimmers.
Shares in Goldwin <8111.T>, which makes and sells Speedo products in Japan, jumped 19 percent.
In Holland, triple Olympic gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband tried several suits during the Dutch championships.
Although the freestyle swimmer has a contract with Nike, the American company allows him to wear other brands if they help him go faster. He appears to be leaning towards the LZR.
Nike has allowed all of its contracted swimmers to try the LZR suit at the US trials, but a spokesman declined to say whether that option would apply at the Games in Beijing. Nike is working with swimmers to "fine-tune" its own suit.
In Italy, where a disgruntled coach compared the LZR to "technological doping," the swimming federation said it could not force athletes to wear suits made by its sponsor, Arena.
"If Filippo Magnini ... wants to wear the Speedo suit in the final of the 100 meters of the Beijing Olympics, he is free to do so, but he'll have to pay a fine," a spokesman said.
World champion Magnini, one of Italy's best chances for Olympic gold, has said that with the LZR "mediocre swimmers suddenly become Martians." He appears likely to switch.
"Arena says it will give us a competitive costume, but the latest ones were not up to the job or broke," Magnini told La Stampa newspaper. "In a whole year Arena have not managed to make a fast enough costume -- how will they manage in a month?"
Diana, another Italian swimwear maker, also has designed a new suit -- the Submarine Shining Arrow -- in the three months since FINA, swimming's ruling body, ruled the LZR legal.
"We have already delivered the costume to the athletes and national teams -- Poland, Ukraine and Slovenia -- under contract with us and it should go on sale in July," Diana general export manager Francois Bertonazzi told Reuters.
"At the moment, (the new Speedo suit) has not created any problems for us in terms of sales," he added. "On the contrary, bookings for a our new suit are going very well."
Germany's swimming federation has stood firm in the face of demands from its athletes to break the contract with official supplier Adidas, which has developed a prototype suit.
Steffen, the German swimmer, said the new Adidas suit seemed to be competitive.
"That's given a great lift to the atmosphere on the team. Now everyone can concentrate on training again," she told Reuters. "Without the right amount of training the best suit in the world won't help at all."
