The Enhanced Games’ Banned “Super Suit” 🩱

I’m sick of “optimization culture.” I know having a few beers is going to cause me to sleep worse, I assume a 3-day workout split probably isn’t as effective as a 5-day routine, and I’m fairly confident that I am not taking any of the supplements currently being recommended by gym bros on TikTok.

But I simply don’t care.

Maybe it was Bryan Johnson saying he never goes outside without an umbrella or that clip of Steven Bartlett going around saying how a glass of wine ruined his entire week, but when did we decide it was worth it to trade off being a regular, well-adjusted human for a few extra “recovery points” on a Whoop?

Rant over (for now).

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: The Truth Behind the Enhanced Games’ Banned “Super Suit”

📉 Biggest Loser: Why is “Socks” Spelled with an X in Baseball?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Most High-Tech Shoulder Pads Ever Created

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This is the most high-tech swimsuit ever created, but not for the reason you might think.

Even though the recent Enhanced Games seemed to prove that simply taking as many steroids as possible doesn’t actually make you a better athlete, there was one interesting “performance enhancer” being tested that is actually far more impressive than anyone realizes.

Background: In 2004, Speedo partnered with NASA and multiple universities to study how they could make their already record-breaking swimsuits even faster. And after putting their latest Fastskin design through a series of tests, scientists at the company found that skin-friction drag, the resistance caused by water moving across a swimmer’s body, accounted for around 25% of the total forces slowing a swimmer down.

Skin Friction: So they began testing over 100 different fabrics in a NASA wind tunnel and eventually settled on a high-density nylon-spandex weave that reduced skin friction by 24%. Scientists then took this design a step further by coating the entire suit in a new kind of water-repellent material that reduced water absorption from 50% to just 2%, making it far lighter than any other suit on the market.

Still, that’s not even the most impressive part.

Little Air Bubbles: Not only was the suit designed to have an extra, compressive layer around the swimmer’s core to help limit fatigue to their back and ab muscles, but each one of these lines you see on the suit’s arms, legs, and back is made from a special kind of material called polyurethane.

Not only is it one of the best materials for reducing skin friction, but it’s also so waterproof that it traps tiny air bubbles beneath a swimmer's body, making it easier for them to float.

Record-Breaking: In fact, Speedo’s new LZR swimsuits proved to be so good that within 6 months of being introduced, 62 world records had already been broken, including the 7 set by Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Leading to all full-body suits being banned from competition less than two years after they were introduced.

However, that didn’t stop athletes at the Enhanced Games, even the two swimmers who weren’t using PEDs, from wearing these so-called “super suits.”

And given the fact that a non-enhanced swimmer actually won an event while wearing one of these things, I’d argue they might be more effective than taking steroids.

Why is “socks” spelled with an X in baseball?

I mean, just think about it, the only time we ever spell it like that is when talking about the Boston Red Sox or the Chicago White Sox; however, the reason why actually reveals one of the strangest political movements in American history.

Color Coordinated: When professional baseball was first taking off in the late 19th century, it was fairly common for teams to adopt unofficial nicknames simply based on the color of their uniforms. For example, you had the:

However, when the National and American Leagues officially formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, team names suddenly became an important marketing tool, requiring quick, punchy nicknames that sports writers could use in newspapers. However, as one modern-day columnist put it, “writing ‘Red Stockings’ or ‘White Stockings’ was a little too long” for the headlines. Which is how you got names like the Cincinnati Reds, the Oakland A’s, and of course, the Red Sox and White Sox.

But why spell it like that?

Sure, it's technically shorter than spelling it with “C-K-S,” but it was actually the result of a dying political movement most people have never heard of.

Patriotic Progress: During the American Revolutionary War, an author and self-described “Spelling Reformist” named Noah Webster believed that America should adopt its own “national language” to fully separate itself from the influence of the British aristocracy.

So, in 1825, after 26 years of work, Webster published An American Dictionary of the English Language, which contained 70,000 words, of which 12,000 had never even appeared in a public dictionary before. Some of these words include spelling changes that we still use today, like:

However, many others proved to be just a fad:

Now, Webster would pass away in 1843; however, his Spelling Reformist beliefs were carried on well into the 1900s by several influential figures, ranging from President Teddy Roosevelt to Joseph Medill, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune.

Lasting Legacy: At the time, Medill’s paper was well known for shortening words like “thru” and “pix” because of Webster’s influence, so when the Chicago White Stockings made their debut in 1894, it made sense for the paper to start calling them the “Sox.”

And even though that specific spelling hasn’t been used in advertising or popular culture in over 100 years, its use in baseball remains the last vestige of the Spelling Reformer movement from the Revolutionary War.

Riddell just created the most high-tech shoulder pads I’ve ever heard of, and they could help solve one of football’s most forgotten problems.

Injury Report: Even though things like Guardian Caps and natural grass fields get all the headlines when it comes to reducing injuries, very little time is spent trying to solve a type of injury that will effect 50% of all NFL players over the course of their careers. In fact, it might surprise some fans to learn that shoulder injuries, like those to the AC joint, rotator cuff, and labrum, actually represent 3 of the 15 most common injury types in the NFL.

But why?

Anatomy: The fact is, the shoulder has the greatest range of motion out of any joint in the body, which comes at the cost of stability. And even though football players wear shoulder pads to protect their ligaments, joints, and muscles, as anyone who has ever played football will tell you, usually these shoulder pads aren’t a perfect fit.

Either you’re wearing something that’s big and bulky, which limits your range of motion, or you go for something that’s easier to move in but not as protective.

But what if athletes didn’t have to make that trade-off anymore?

Tech Triumph: That’s where the device below comes in. Instead of walking into the equipment room and simply picking a small, medium, or large, athletes at some of the top college programs and in the NFL now have the option to get their entire torso scanned.

I promise this isn’t an ad, I just saw this video from the University of Georgia where players were putting on a special compression shirt, and standing on a rotating platform, while a member of the equipment staff used their phone to capture basic 2D images that, by using the reference points on the shirt, create a true-to-scale 3D scan that Riddell can apparently use to make a fully custom-set of shoulder pads that can better protect an athlete without limiting their range of motion.

This is actually the same technology the company uses to make custom helmets for players, too, but honestly, I just can’t believe that no one thought of this sooner.

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

I couldn’t help but laugh at the abject failure that the Enhanced Games turned out to be. Turns out there’s more to being an elite athlete than pumping yourself full of steroids, who would have guessed?