This study was intended to investigate the effect of wearing a wetsuit (WS) on physical performance capacity, which are maximal oxygen uptake (imagemax) and maximal mechanical power output (POmax), and to demonstrate whether wearing a WS affected the relationship between maximal 400 m swim performance (V400) and imagemax, and between sprint swim performance (Vsprint) and imagemax. Twelve triathletes participated in this study. imagemax was determined during the continuous progressive swimming test. The mean velocity over maximal 400 m swim was defined as V400. Active drag (AD), Vsprint and POmax were measured by a specific method called "perturbation method". Compared with wearing a swimsuit (SS), V400 was improved without enhancing imagemax and Vsprint was also improved without enhancing POmax and AD by wearing a WS. Significant correlations were found between V400 and imagemax and between Vsprint and POmax in the both suit conditions, but a higher correlation was found in the WS condition than in the SS condition. These results suggested that improved swim performance from wearing a WS was attributable only to improvement in technical factors, such as propulsion efficiency. In conclusion, during swimming with a WS, performance gain was not associated with physiological factors but with propulsion efficiency related to a gain in buoyancy and to drag reduction. However, when wearing a WS, V400 and Vsprint more reflected the values of imagemax and POmax, respectively.
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