
Almost two-thirds of all swimming gold medals won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games were done so by athletes wearing Speedo, research has revealed.
With the likes of superstars Caeleb Dressel and Emma McKeon choosing the iconic boom, swimmers wearing Speedo took home 61% of the golds on offer and almost half (49%) of all medals.
All athletes competing at the Games were given the opportunity to wear either of Speedo’s LZR Pure Intent or LZR Pure Valor Fastskin suits, with the brand also supporting nations and athletes who had no official swimsuit partnerships through the distribution of more than 60 suits.
This allowed swimmers from nations such as Eswatini, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Syria to be able to compete on a level playing field with the likes of Dressel, McKeon and the rest of the Team Speedo athletes. At the end of the Games, the Pure Intent and Pure Valor suits had been worn by 66% of swimmers who broke world records since they were released in 2019.
Those records were set by athletes all over the world, with swimmers from five different continents responsible for record-breaking times. That theme continued to Tokyo, where swimmers wearing Speedo from the same five continents also won medals.
More records would fall in Tokyo too, as Dressel and South African breaststroker Tatjana Schoenmaker were the only two swimmers to break an individual world record at the Games. Dressel did so wearing the LZR Pure Intent in the 100m butterfly, whilst Schoenmaker defied the partnership her nation had with a rival brand to wear the LZR Pure Valor as she broke her first world record in the 200m breaststroke.
Schoenmaker and McKeon were not alone, though. Research shows that of all the female swimming medals on offer, 69% were swept up by athletes in Speedo suits. Whilst McKeon led the way by becoming the first ever swimmer to win seven medals at a Games, the likes of China’s Zhang Yufei (two gold, two silver), and McKeon’s compatriots Ariarne Titmus (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and Kaylee McKeown (3 gold, 1 bronze) also helped to ensure that Speedo were well represented on the female podiums.
On the men’s side, Dressel was the stand out star as he won more golds than any other swimmer – bagging five in total to cement his position as the biggest star in the sport. Elsewhere, Team Speedo’s Duncan Scott became the first Briton to win four medals at a single Games in any sport, whilst there were also golds for the likes of Russian Olympic Committee’s Evgeny Rylov (100m and 200m backstroke) Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook (200m breaststroke) and Tom Dean (200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle).
Preparations now turn to the next Olympic Games in Paris, with the development of new Fastskin suits already well underway. In addition, Speedo recently revealed its vision for the future, unveiling the Fastskin 4.0 earlier this year; a concept suit that is the result of AquaLab – the brand’s internal innovation department – looking two decades into the future and how technology could impact the world of swimming.