Looking for edge, Dutch sport high-tech suits
RICHMOND, British Columbia (AP) — Aerospace engineering doesn't immediately come to mind when a Dutch speedskater wins gold at the Winter Games. Yet with Olympic lore depending on a fraction of a second, some people will stop at nothing to get the all-important edge.
Hence the role of Nando Timmer, an assistant professor of aerodynamics at the Dutch TU Delft faculty of Aerospace Engineering who has created something to give his country a boost at the Vancouver Games.
When Sven Kramer lines up Saturday in the 5,000 meters, his muscle-packed torso will be wrapped in an orange-and-black body suit which is claimed to be as revolutionary as it is shrouded in secrecy.
To the naked eye, it looks like any of the colorful patchwork of specialized materials that fit skaters like a second skin. Part of the fabric, though, is said to have special features that make it easier to glide through the air at speeds sometimes approaching 30 mph. Less resistance means more speed.
The suits are said to be so good that the Dutch switched from the Nike Swift skin suits that their speedskaters wore with considerable success over the past eight years.
"The KNSB Dutch federation has ended the contract with Nike," Timmer said, bent on maintaining secrecy. "That is all I am saying."
From now on, the clock will have to do the talking.
The speedskaters, as finicky as they are with their skates as with their suits, have fallen in love.
"Tested the new Olympic suit. Feels fast," team pursuit skater Mart Tuitert wrote as fast as he could on Twitter.
"Oh, but this Olympic suit feels sweet," added sprinter Ronald Mulder.
Science or science fiction? Depends who wears the suits. One thing is sure. A little bit of psychological warfare ahead of the biggest event in four years never hurts.
"Yeah for sure," Canadian veteran Jeremy Wotherspoon said with a dismissive chuckle. "It is good to try stuff. But there is a limit to how much stuff is positive for you. Sometime you just got to skate, too."
At 33, he has the benefit of hindsight, since he was already there at the 1988 Nagano Games, when Timmer helped the Dutch produce their "Nagano strips," a zigzag concoction of materials that wind tunnel tests showed reduced drag.
The Dutch won five gold medals at those Olympics so there certainly were no complaints there. Now the new technology builds further on that.
Because the suit development is overseen by the Dutch federation, the suit can be better adapted to the size and even the style of any individual skater. If one hangs lower over the ice, the back of the suit can be adapted to let him hold the position better. If another skates more upright, the back can be stretched tighter to accommodate that position.
And the Dutch plan to monopolize the technology as long as possible.
"We have an agreement not to release any information until 2014, making sure we do not endanger our competitive advantage," KNSB director Arie Koops said.
That would make for an edge lasting until the next Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Speed skaters of the Netherlands train at the Richmond Olympic Oval at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) 
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