Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Existing literature showed improved swimming performances for swimmers wearing wetsuits competing under standardized conditions in races held in pools on short to middle distances. Data about the influence of wetsuits on swimming performances in long and ultra-long open-water swimming races are missing.
It is unknown whether the benefit of wearing wetsuits is comparable in men and women. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of wearing a wetsuit on open-water swimming performances at the Race times of the fastest female and male swimmers competing with and without wetsuit were compared using multi-level regression analyses and analysis of variance.
However, the ten fastest men wearing a wetsuit Additionally, the top ten men without wetsuit The top ten women wearing a wetsuit These results suggest that wearing a wetsuit had a positive influence on swimming speed for both women and men but the benefit of the use of wetsuits seemed to depend on additional factors i. Women seemed to benefit more from wearing wetsuits than men in longer open-water ultra-distance swimming races. Over the past decade the popularity of participation in ultra-endurance events such as ultra-marathon running [ 1 - 4 ], ultra-cycling [ 5 ], ultra-triathlons [ 6 , 7 ] and ultra-swimming [ 8 - 10 ] has considerably increased.
Recent studies showed that women reduced the sex difference in open-water ultra-distance swimming [ 15 , 16 ] and were even able to outperform men [ 17 ]. Long-distance swimming splits are also included in other ultra-endurance events such as long-distance triathlons i. Ironman triathlon consisting of 3. The same 3. When the race started in , only eight swimmers participated but the number of swimmers increased continuously up to 94 starters in [ 19 ]. These participants are separately ranked in a wetsuit category.
In official Ironman competitions the permission of the use of wetsuits depends on the water temperature. Wetsuits are permitted when the water temperature is up to Athletes who choose wearing a wetsuit in water temperatures between When triathletes began wearing wetsuits during the swimming part of a triathlon race, anecdotal evidence as well as the empirical study of Parsons and Day [ 21 ] indicated that the swimming performance could be improved by wearing a wetsuit.
