Diana Rugg WCNC Reporter

LZR fast and lightning speed? The new Speedo swimsuits making a splash -- and creating a wave of controversy -- at Olympic Trials in Omaha this week are sure to make a few of us swimming old-timers chuckle. Swimsuits have come a long way in their evolution over the past 40 years.

I started swimming in 1972, at age 5, wearing a baggy old nylon thing with a mandatory "skirt" on the front. It was actually a "privacy panel" -- a 2nd layer of nylon -- down the middle of the suit which created a "tank top" affect across the tops of a woman's legs. It wasn't swimming in a burqua, but it was close. The thick, industrial-strength reinforced rubber caps completed the weighty ensemble. I think together they weighed more than I did.

By the time I was 8, the "Belgrad" was all the rage. Controversial too -- it was made of lycra and was so tight, it had snaps at the shoulders that a girl could unsnap so the straps wouldn't be uncomfortable between events. The suit even had an "open seam" up the back, to let air bubbles out. Technology at its best, especially because the skirts had finally been eliminated. Not everyone was keen on that.

By the time I was 12, suits were smaller and tighter. My brother joked that it had to be "spray-painted" on me before the meet. It took at least 15 minutes to put on before events (a slow, often painful, process) and it covered only what it had to -- scooped down in back just above my bottom, and with thin, lycra straps crossing or joining together up my back, between my shoulder blades, and over my shoulders. It was so sheer that you didn't dare wear a red one, and it left red marks at every seam.

With our skin-tight suits, we progressed to the next rage -- Time-Off Spray and Motion Lotion. My coach called it "ScotchGuard for your skin." You had to be completely dry before you put it on, and my dad would stand me in front of an open door of Gainesville's (UF's) O'Connell Center -- an air-inflated dome -- and "blow dry" me before spraying it on. While wearing those suits, with that spray, in that pool, I won a state title, made 2 All-Americans, and qualified for Senior Nationals -- just short of my goal of swimming in Olympic Trials.

Later, as a coach, our team supplied swimmers with "paper suits." They really felt like paper and I still have mine. I keep hoping I'll fit into it again and be able to race someday. (After two kids that seems impossible, but Dara Torres gives me hope.)

So you see, the LZR isn't unfair -- it's just the next step in swimsuit evolution. Sure, it needs to be zero-flotation, because staying on top of the water should be a swimmer's job, not a swimsuit's. But I, for one, like anything that makes you feel fast in the water -- because that's the greatest feeling in the world.

And I'm glad, too, that suits have stopped getting smaller.

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