The start of the men’s 50 backstroke final at the LEN 2008 European Short Course Championships in Rijeka, Croatia. Notice the two men without tech suits on lane 2 and 7. If I’m not very much mistaken, they were Germany’s Helge Meeuw (on lane 2) and Thomas Rupprath (on lane 7), opting to swim in ‘banana hammocks’ rather than the brand of ‘supersuits’ that they otherwise had to wear because of the German swimming federation’s sponsor obligations.
Here is a video from that event
