Built for speed: sporting new racing suits, this year's Olympic speed skaters should be slicker and quicker than ever.

DID YDU KNOW?

* Nike's Swift Skin fits most comfortably when the skater is in a crouched, not upright, position. The suit was designed with the competitive crouching position in mind. That's because crouching creates less drag than an upright stance, allowing the athlete to skate faster.

* How does a speed skater expend energy while gliding around the ice rink'? According to Nike's Swift Skin project experts, approximately 25 percent of a skater's energy is used for fighting the friction between the skates and the ice. The remaining 75 percent of his or her energy is spent overcoming air resistance.

CRITICAL THINKING:

* Come up with other examples of how the design of sports attire helps athletes achieve maximum performance.

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS:

HISTORY: Have each student select a sport. Then, have them do research to create a time line on how the sport's attire has changed throughout the ages. Include information about any technological advancement that may have contributed to the changes in design.

RESOURCES

* This Web site features a trove of information about how aerodynamics is involved in many different sports. The site includes lesson plans and cross-curriculum activities: http://wings.avkids.com/Book/Sports/instructor/

* To learn about the physics of ice-skating, visit this Web site: http://satchmo.as.arizona.edu/~jrigby/skating/main.html

As Olympic speed skaters glide over the ice in Torino, Italy, this winter, they'll be donning the Swift Skin--Nike's new racing suit. Crafted with sleek seams and slick fabrics, the new suit is designed to pare down skating' times--giving a competitive advantage to anyone who wears one.

Although Nike isn't releasing statistics yet, its research shows that the Swift Skin will make skaters even faster than the Nike suit worn by some skaters in the 2002 Winter Olympics. The older Swift Skin improved skaters' times by about one percent. Sound trivial? Not to Kip Carpenter, a U.S. Olympic speed skater. In 2002, Carpenter beat an opponent by ,just two hundredths of a second--earning him a bronze medal. "It was a dream come true, and extremely satisfying," Carpenter told Scholastic Kids Press Corps.

How is it possible that a suit can make skaters speedier, helping them to achieve their Olympic dreams? "The reason is that we live in an ocean of air," says William Sands, head of biomechanics and engineering in the Coaching and Sport Sciences division of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As skaters move forward, air pushes against them. "Air resistance, or drag, is a [slowing] factor for anything moving through the air at approximately jogging speed or greater," says Sands. By reducing air resistance, the newest Swift Skin helps skaters expend less energy fighting drag. That means they'll have more energy to propel themselves forward. "In effect, the Swift Skin allows skaters to take off the parking brake," says Peter Vint, a sport technologist who is also involved with the Coaching and Sport Sciences division of the USOC.

WINDY EXPERIMENT

The notion that clothing could make athletes move faster occurred to people roughly 20 years ago, says Len Brownlie, of Aerosports Research in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Brownlie, a scientist who specializes in aerodynamics, or the study of how air flows around objects, helped design both of Nike's Swift Skin suits. Before settling on the latest design, "we tested hundreds of fabrics in wind tunnels," says Brownlie. The team knew that drag is usually caused by an irregular flow of air, called turbulence. So they carefully crafted the suit with fabrics that generated the least amount of turbulence.

To find out how air flowed around various fabrics and suit patterns, Brownlie's team first fitted mannequins with test suits. Then, they anchored the models to devices that measured the amount of drag at different wind speeds. The team also glued tufts of wool to the suits. "If these [tufts] fluttered or curled backwards, it meant that the airflow in that area was reversing direction-indicating turbulence," says Brownlie.

Next, the team tested the best designs on actual skaters. "They had athletes in wind tunnels, testing us to see what was aerodynamic," U.S. Olympic speed skater Casey FitzRandolph told Scholastic Kids Press Corps.

GO WITH THE FLOW

Finally, after years of research at a cost of millions of dollars, the test results are in--and the new suit is out. The new aerodynamically efficient Swift Skin is made in one streamlined piece that stretches from head to skates. Long-track skaters, who do not wear helmets like short-track skaters do, sport a hooded suit that squishes down their hair, ears, and even their Adam's apples. Each suit is custom-fitted to prevent wrinkles and creases. Since seams can also increase drag, they are placed in the back of the suit, or sewn to run in the direction of the airflow.

The scientists also found that the shape and movement of various parts of the skater's body can affect how air flows around the skater. So the team selected different fabrics with textures that improved airflow for each area of the body. For instance, slippery fabric on the torso creates a smooth flow of air. But a dimpled fabric works best on pumping arms and legs. "Through a quirk of nature, roughing up the surface reduces overall drag," says Brownlie. Similar to the dimples on a golf ball, rough textures on the arms and legs create a boundary layer of air that allows air to flow over more easily and reduces drag, says Vint.

FRICTION FIGHTER

The same dimples that improve airflow can also increase friction between moving body parts. Friction is a force that resists movement and slows objects down. Rough surfaces tend to generate more friction than smooth ones.

To reduce friction, the Swift Skin has low-friction panels on the inner legs, and on the underarms of short-track skaters, who pump both arms and legs as they race. The secret? The panels contain thousands of smooth microscopic glass beads, which allow skaters' limbs to slide against other parts of their bodies more freely.

SAFE AND SOUND

As any athlete will tell you, speed isn't everything. Swift Skin's design team also had to take safety into consideration. In the tough world of short-track skating, accidents are common. In 1994, at the World Cup in Montreal, an opponent tried to pass Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury. The move caused Bradbury to flip into the air and land on his skate blade. The blade ripped a lengthy gash in his leg that required 111 stitches to sew up. To prevent such injuries in the future, the new Swift Skin has cut-proof panels over the arteries, or vessels that carry blood from the heart.

MAKING A CHAMPION

With all these high-tech advances, it's important to remember that it's not the suit that nabs the gold medal. It's the athlete. Carpenter said it best after the 2002 Winter Olympics: "Champions possess the Olympic spirit, defined by heart, effort, and will." That said, a fast suit can't hurt.