How much do swim trunks slow you down? (2025)

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Competitive swimming often comes down to milliseconds. Athletes often practice several times per day to become the best swimmer they can be. What many often overlook is the fact that swim trunks slow you down when swimming. Therefore it’s important to understand how much swim trunks slow you down.

In this article, we will dive deeper into the topic of swim trunks and competitive swimming and answer the question “how much do swim trunks slow you down?”

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How to reduce drag when swimming

As a competitive swimmer, you want as little drag as possible. To reduce drag swim with swim briefs. If you have long hair this will also slow you down. Use a swim cap to keep your hair in place and reduce drag.

True competitive swimmers will also save away any hair on their bodies to get that extra advantage.

All of these will help you to streamline your body and become faster in the water.

While it’s important to understand how much swim trunks slow you down, it’s also essential to know that there are ways to reduce drag when swimming. Swimmers who want to be as fast as possible should always be aware of the drag-reducing techniques.

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The full bodysuit

You might think “wait, competitive swimmers don’t use swim briefs, they use a full bodysuit. Doesn’t this slow them down a lot?”

It might look counterintuitive to wear that much fabric over the whole body. Doesn’t that create drag and slow you down when swimming?

Remember that all water has to flow alongside the body, and will always create some form of drag. But what if you wear a material that makes it easier for the water to flow than your skin?

That’s what the full bodysuits do. The development of swimwear has really come a long way. And today we can create swimsuits that are as a second layer of skin and actually creates less drag than your own skin. This is how competitive swimsuits slow you down even less than your own skin.

The swimsuit will also make you more buoyant which gives the swimmer an advantage.

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The banned swimsuit that was too fast

In the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, 25 world record was destroyed. That’s the most since the introduction of swimming goggles.

How is this possible? Almost all of the records were set using the new Speedo’s LZR Racer. This full-body swimsuit was designed by Speedo and NASA.

They had managed to create a swimsuit that created so little drag and almost didn’t slow down the swimmer at all. The suit reduced drag by 24%.

The swimsuit was deemed to be way too good and was banned shortly after 2008.

This shows the effect of drag and how much it can slow you down when having the wrong gear and how much is to be gained from having the right gear!

When swimming laps, it’s important to be as fast as possible. This is why swim trunks with a lot of loose fabric will slow you down. To become faster, the swimmer needs to be as streamlined as possible to enable the water to flow smoothly alongside the body. There are many ways to reduce drag when swimming.

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Rounding up

So, what should you wear when doing competitive swimming? It turns out that swim trunks are a bad idea – they actually slow you down. That’s why it’s important to choose the right outfit for your next race. Speedo makes some great racing suits that can help you shave valuable seconds off of your time. What type of clothing do you wear when swimming competitively?

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