Two minutes

A swift swimsuit designer

Can a swimsuit make much difference in setting world records? Speedo's new Fastskin FS-Pro swimsuit is credited with helping world class swimmers break dozens of national and international records in the six months since its release. And Rick Sharp was part of a design team that created the suit.

Swimmer, consultant: A former competitive swimmer who swims daily, Sharp is a physiology consultant to Speedo International and participates in numerous swimming coach education programs in the U.S. and abroad.

Real title: Sharp is a professor of exercise physiology in the kinesiology department, where he also is director of ISU's kinesiology laboratories.

Speedo's new FS-PRO swimsuit

New Fastskin FS-PRO swimsuit. Photo courtesy of Speedo.

Chicken soup for fitness: Sharp's research focuses on nutritional factors that influence the body's metabolic response to exercise. He co-authored a study suggesting that chicken soup restores the body's fluid better than popular sport drinks. When subjects consumed chicken noodle soup or chicken broth, their blood volume was restored more completely than when they ingested either plain water or a sports drink. Sharp is working on a follow-up study with competitive cyclists.
RickSharp

"My perspective was that you have a nice fabric -- a low-drag fabric that is as slippery as possible -- but you need to shape the body and prevent the skin from flapping around in the water, since that creates a lot of drag."

Rick Sharp

Sharp is an Iowa State University professor who teaches in the College of Human Sciences. More Two-Minute briefs.