A Look-Back at the Many Uniforms (and Accessories) of Olympic Swimming

[Editor’s Note: As part of our continuing Olympic uniforms/accessories coverage, please welcome Matthew Baglio, who takes a deep dive into the swimsuits of the Olympic Games. Enjoy! — PH]

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A Look-Back at the Many Uniforms (and Accessories) of Olympic Swimming
by Matthew Baglio

Hi everyone,

I’m thrilled to be writing as an Olympic Correspondent for Uni-Watch’s Olympic coverage. Thanks to Phil for this great opportunity!

This will be a historical look back on the uniforms and accessories of the great sport of swimming (men’s and women’s). Olympic swimming has not only been a fixture of the games since 1896, but an inspiring sport with a very recognizable look. As a former swimmer from 2015-2022 (and current swim coach) I find it fascinating the changes that have been made to the sport’s uniforms, leading to the swimsuits we see today. These uniform changes have not only been made for cosmetic reasons, but because every four years, new technology comes onto the scene in attempts to make Olympians even faster swimmers than they already are.

Let’s take a look at what uniforms looked like during the first Olympic swimming games.

Shown above is the typical swimsuit worn for the first 16 to 20 years of swimming in the Olympics, worn by Alfréd Hajós, an Olympic Hungarian swimmer and soccer star. These suits covered the full body of the swimmers, and they were made out of wool. It was an incredibly heavy material and the suits were almost completely ruined after a few wears. What’s even more interesting is that none of the suits were branded with any symbols of a specific country or team, as they were mostly suits the athletes brought from home. Branding was the least of anyone’s worries during the first few Olympic swimming events, as practicality and speed were the leading factors in the making of these suits (even if they weren’t so practical).

Women were not allowed to swim in the Olympics until 1912 (with most countries waiting until the 1920s and 1930s to permit women to participate), and even then, women shared the same full-body wool uniforms the men wore.

Here is an image from the 1912 Olympics, featuring the first “racing swimsuits,” which were made of silk, and once again an over-the-shoulder, full body suit. The silk was made to be a less-resistant material, and while it achieved success helping swimmers become faster, the silk suits became almost immediately transparent. Ironically, it was very common for swimmers to wear underwear underneath the silk swimsuits, adding drag resistance to the seemingly faster outfits.

Speaking of the first women in the sport, pictured above is Clare Dennis, Australian gold medalist in the 200 meter breaststroke in 1932. (Not so fun fact: Dennis was almost disqualified for wearing this suit, as she supposedly “showed too much shoulder” while wearing it.) Dennis was one of the first gold medalists to exclusively wear swimsuits from Speedo, the Australian-British based swimwear and accessory producer. At this moment in time, Speedo has become a mainstay of swimwear, not just for Olympians, but for recreational swimming all over the world. Speedo was such an important factor in the progression of swimming uniforms that when they produced the ever popular men’s swimming brief (pictured below), the name became known, colloquially as a “speedo.”

The 1932 Olympics is where branding on swimming uniforms really takes shape. Shown in these pictures above, team logos, wordmarks and emblems would be printed onto suits made of a combination of silk, wool, and canvas, allowing for a speedy yet reasonable uniform. Also by 1932, almost all Olympic swimming teams had men and women wearing the same design on every uniform they wore, despite male and female uniforms being shaped slightly differently.

There is no surprise that the addition of national symbols being placed on uniforms correlates directly with the introduction of broadcasting the Olympic games live on television. News coverage of the Olympics that was able to show photographs of the athletes and game play was one factor, but the driving force was the fact that the 1936 Olympic games were the first to be broadcast for local television. It only took 24 years after the introduction of the Olympics to television for satellites to pick up the games, bringing Olympic coverage to three continents by 1960.

Let’s skip ahead to 1956, where great developments were being made to competitive swimsuits. In this year, Speedo created suits with nylon, a fabric that kept suits more durable and elastic. This allowed for faster swims and the ability for swimmers to wear better suits for a longer time. In the 1956 Olympics, a whopping EIGHT world records were broken in both the men’s and women’s events. Individual men’s teams had the option of wearing a full body suit or a brief (speedo), but after watching what the new suits could do to amplify one’s swimming ability, men typically chose the brief, attempting to get rid of any and all drag.

The 60s and 70s is where we really saw the rise in popularity of swimsuits with colors and patterns. Take this image from the Tokyo games in 1964. Each swimmer boasts a distinctly colorful and uniquely patterned suit that not only allows them to show audiences what country they’re swimming for, but gives each individual swimmer a way to express their own personality with their suit. However, even though the women’s teams took advantage of this opportunity to make their suits more unique, the men’s teams still only used the brief suits to keep faster times.

The 1964 Olympics is also the first year where the swimming games were held indoors – specifically the Yoyogi National Gymnasium. It did not affect the uniforms worn, but it did affect the locations of the swimming games for the Olympics to come. Every summer Olympics since 1964 has hosted all water sports (swimming, water polo, diving, synchronized swimming) indoors, as it is easier to control the temperature and chlorine levels of a pool.

A huge development in 1972 came with the addition of goggles. Goggles came to be because Scottish swimmer David Wilkie competed at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, but a chlorine allergy almost prevented him from competing. Wilkie then won a gold medal, being able to see better than every other swimmer competing. By the 1976 Olympics, every single swimmer wore goggles and times improved in almost every event. Turns out being able to see is quite important in an athletic event. Who would’ve thought.

The 70s were also the era for the rise of latex swim caps. While today, every single swimmer wears a swim cap as it reduces drag and eliminates any risk of a hair-related mishap, women (those with longer hair) were the first and only swimmers to adopt swim caps as an everyday item in their Olympic uniform. Swim caps did not include a logo or a name as they do now, but they could be different, unique colors in coordination with the team.

Beginning in the 1984 games, women’s suits began to include thinner straps and more modern necklines and backlines. The uniforms worn in the Olympics were finally a good representation of what women may have worn in recreation in that year. In the 80s, patterns were at their best. Not only were they unique to every country, but they represented an aspect of the country they were for, typically a representation of a flag. This image below is of a United States swimmer, wearing a Speedo swimsuit and cap.

The men’s suits in the 1980s were, once again, just the briefs (speedos), as most men’s swimming teams followed the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule. It wasn’t until the 2000s where men’s teams experimented with suits that could make swims faster. See below for the next experimentation in the men’s and women’s uniforms.

In 2000, the first iterations of the Speedo Fastskin suit were released. In the 2000 games in Sydney, 83% of medal-winners (of all participating countries) wore the Fastskin. It was a full-body suit that could take away drag by covering skin that might otherwise add milliseconds of time to the fastest events. The 50 meter freestyle, the shortest and quickest event in the Olympics, set a new world record in 2000 by a matter of 0.17 seconds. Any time that a sprinting event could hypothetically be swam faster, these swimmers will try it. This included the Speedo Fastskin, and the following LZR Racer, pictured below.

Worn by both men and women, the LZR Racer suit was a welcomed addition in 2008, just in time for the Beijing games. These swimsuits, which used incredibly forward-thinking, brand-new patented technology, were so good that the fabrics used in the LZR Racer suit, elastane-nylon and polyurethane, have not been changed since. These suits are now commonly known as “tech” suits.

When I was a competitive swimmer, receiving a tech suit was one of the best things. It was a common Christmas gift for year-round swimmers, and even though they are incredibly hard to put on, they make for very fast races, typically where swimmers can set their personal bests. It was also very cool to be wearing the same suits as your Olympic heroes.

This picture from the 2021 shows the latest versions of the LZR Racer and LZR Elite suits that men typically wear and will wear for the 2024 games. They now take the form of jammer suits, a tight tech suit that spans from the waist to just above the knee. This has not proven to be the fastest suit on the market in terms of World Records, but every male swimmer is wearing one.

These pictures of the women at the 2021 games show that their suits also sit just above the knee, but are full body suits with thin straps and open backs.

Alternatively to Speedo, other brands we’ll see that have been making waves (pun intended) in the swimsuit game are TYR, Arena, and MP (Michael Phelps).

Eventually, popular swimmers partnered with specific brands. Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, was originally partnered with Speedo, before he branched out to create his own brand. Katie Ledecky, who holds many World Records for the 1500m freestyle, is partnered with TYR on a $7 million deal.

I hope this look-back has been enough for you to tune in to the swimming events beginning on Saturday, July 27th. Swimming is an incredible sport, and all of this history leads right into what could be the most consequential Olympic swimming games in decades. The United States is slated to repeat their medal victories in Tokyo, but anything can happen, especially with these incredibly technologically-savvy suits.