Wet suit effect: a comparison between competitive swimmers and triathletes.

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the wet suit effect on 8 swimmers and 8 triathletes. For swimmers, the performances of a 400-m swim with and without wet suit were not statistically different (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 triathletes 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 cost of swimming and the gliding ability were not statistically different with or without wet suit, while for triathletes they were significantly lower and decreased with velocity. It is concluded that the wet suit effect improves performance more in inefficient swimmers with low buoyancy, swimming at low speeds.