Under Armour/Lockheed Suit Blamed For US Skating Performance

Koreantoast writes "The United States' surprisingly poor performance in speedskating, despite strong performances in recent World Cup events, has been blamed in part on an untested speedskating suit. The Mach 39, designed through a joint venture between Under Armour and Lockheed Martin, was supposed to provide Team USA with a high tech advantage, using advanced fluid dynamic models and a dimpled surface to disrupt air flow and improve comfort. Instead, performances have been disastrous thus far, with athletes going as far as modifying their suits at the Olympics to try and reverse their fortunes. The suits have caused enough concerns that U.S. Speedskating is taking the unusual step of seeking special dispensation from International Skating Union to ditch the high tech suits and switch back to their old uniforms. Teams are normally required to keep the same equipment through the entire Games. Insert jokes and comparisons to Lockheed's more famous product, the JSF, here."

Re:Typical American Attitude

[msobkow]

Blaming suits for the loss instead of congratulating the winners is just piss poor sportsmanship and sour grapes. Shame.

Re:Then again, maybe it’s not the suits at a

[Ralph Wiggam]

Americans are very F A T and quite poor at sport.

The US has won 1063 gold medals at the Summer Olympics. The next highest existing country has won 245.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_Olympic_Games_medal_table

Re:numbers?

[ginoledesma]

Emery Lehman, highest scorer for the US, on the Men's 5000 meter competitions:

Salt Lake City USA (2013-11-17): [speedskatingresults.com] 6 min 19.86 sec (personal best)
Sochi Olympics 2014 (2014-02-08) [sochi2014.com]: 6 min 29.94 sec

His performance at the Sochi Olympics is 19.18 seconds away from the top scorer.

Jonathan Kuck, second after Lehman for the same competition:

Salt Lake City USA (2013-11-17): [speedskatingresults.com] 6 min 09.73 sec (personal best)
Sochi Olympics 2014 (2014-02-08) [sochi2014.com]: 6 min 31.53 sec

Patrick Meek, third in Sochi Olympics 2014, for the same competition:

Salt Lake City USA (2012-01-21): [speedskatingresults.com] 6 min 23.89 sec (personal best)
Sochi Olympics 2014 (2014-02-08) [sochi2014.com]: 6 min 32.94 sec

Only Jonathan Kuck's personal best beats out the top scorer in this competition. I'll defer to wiser minds in determining whether having a suit give you +5-10 second advantage is "fair" in this competition.

Re:numbers?

[Lawrence_Bird]

Here - let me kill this for you right now:

Lehman 5000m 27 December 2013 6.25,72

So he has times of 6 09.73, 6.25.72 and olympic 6.31.53

Meek: 17 November 2013 6.19,86
Meek: 25 October 2013 6.24,73

and those vs the olympic 6.32.94

And we are to blame the suits? In Lehman's case if he were a horse I would ask if he was taking Lasix to get the 6 09.73

Consider that athletes, like horses, do not always perform at their best on race day. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Beyond the myriad physiological reasons, ice is not the same rink to rink, skate blades can be sharpened differently with different interactions between the ice and the athlete's legs and so on.

This kind of whining is really embarassing.

Re:Untested?

[QilessQi]

I read TFA, and yes the suits were tested by the manufacturer, but they were only delivered to the team in January where "preliminary adjustments for fit and comfort were made for each athlete... The U.S. team wore the suits in the past month for simulated race conditions, but the Games marked the first time in competition."

These skaters have spent years practicing, and yet they spent just one month in the actual gear they would wear for the competition. And worse, some of them are making last-minute mods:

"Several skaters, including Heather Richardson, ranked No. 1 in the 1,000 meters, sent their suits to an Under Armour seamstress Thursday to have the panel modified with an extra piece of rubber. After the alteration, Ms. Richardson finished seventh—more than a second slower than the winner."

So there's a perfect example of an American racing in untested gear.

Dominating

[dtml-try MyNick]

In my opinion the US skaters are just looking for a scapegoat. The truth is much simpler, us Dutchies are completely and utterly dominating the speed-skating competition at the Olympics.

A good suit is vs a bad suit just gives you a very very marginal advantage, the rest is training and professionalism. It's not just the US that is being squashed right now, each and every country competing in speedskating is getting a good ass-kicking. ;-)