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A new model triathlon suit (NMS) was developed to help the swimming performance of athletes. The NMS is made of highly compressed and highly water-repellent fabric, which is used in competitive swimwear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the NMS by measuring the passive drag and body position during underwater streamline position. The NMS and the old model suit (OMS) were worn by 11 highly competitive varsity swimmers (eight males and three females). The passive drag and body position were measured when both suits were worn in the circulating water channel. The coefficient of passive drag was calculated by the equation. On average, for the whole measurements, there was a reduction in passive drag when wearing the NMS suit of 1.1±5.3% compared with the OMS, whereas there was no statistically significant. The coefficient of the passive drag was not significant difference between both suits. Wearing the NMS showed higher body position compared to the OMS at any velocity, although not significantly. These results suggest that wearing the NMS might help improve swimming performance.

A new optimization system of cycling power was investigated in this paper. The developed system consisted of a newly designed biaxial load cells and analytical system using mechanical model of lower limb. The new biaxial load cells which were made by stainless steel (SUS304) were attached to the bottom of cycling-shoes instead of the plastic cleats. Cyclists are able to connect their cycling-shoes to pedals by the developed load cells. The sizes of load cells were almost same as plastic cleats (Shimano Corp) and measure the magnitude and direction of right and left pedal force using 16-strain gages, respectively. The analytical system solves the link model of human limbs to identify the positions and angles of each segment of lower limbs. The lower limbs model consisted of 3 segments, thigh, shank and foot. All position of every lower limb segments, joint torques and forces were calculated by this system. Additionally, the relationships between ankle angle and crank angle were also modelled by image-analysis software (TEMA 3D) with the high-speed camera (Photron FASTCAM SA4). This cycling power optimization system were applied to the amateur and expert cyclists to investigate applicability of our system.