BROOKE'S LOOK AT ROMA 09 DAY THREE

July 29: The war of the swimsuits continued on day three of the FINA World Swimming Championships in Rome as Brooke Hanson reports...

The most famous swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps, hadn't lost a 200m freestyle race since 2004 but today that all changed when he was beaten by German Paul Biedermann.

It was another win for technology as Biedermann took his second gold medal of the championships and the German smashed the old world record held by Phelps by 0.96 of a second, stopping the clock at 1:42.00.

The race was the super suit verses the not-so-super suit; the Arena X-Glide against the Speedo LZR.

Biedermann had the big advantage and it showed as he glided on top of the water and blew Phelps away by more than a second. Phelps, who stayed loyal to sponsor Speedo wearing the slower suit, had to be content with the silver medal.

Not since the 1994 World Swimming Championships in Rome has there been so much controversy in swimming. Back then performance-enhancing drugs were the talking point as the Chinese swim team found themselves in the middle of a steroid war.

Fifteen years later the World Championships have returned to Rome and once again the meet has been overshadowed by another scandal. This year it's all about the new swimsuit technology.

Swims such as Brenton Rickard's long-awaited gold medal in the men's 100m breaststroke are being buried in the news because of the swimsuit wars.

The headlines, articles, television reports and talkback radio are all reporting on the suits and the world records instead of individual performances and medal tallies.

Already this week the swimming world has seen three champions of the sport lose their world records. Inge de Bruijn in the 100m butterfly set in 2000, Ian Thorpe in the 400m freestyle set in 2002 and Leisel Jones in the 100m breaststroke set in 2006 have all had their times wiped from the record books.

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games Leisel created a new world record in the 100m breaststroke, clocking 1.05.09 wearing the Speedo fastskin (the old swim suit). In 2008 at the Beijing Olympic Games Leisel won the gold medal in a time of 1.05.17 wearing the Speedo LZR racer (the new swim suit).

Leisel touched the wall a full body length ahead of silver medallist Rebecca Soni of the USA, winning by 1.66 seconds.

Until this week Leisel's world record from 2006 was a time that I believed would take a while to be beaten.

Like De Bruijn and Thorpe's times, however, Leisel's time wasn't good enough to win against the super swimsuits.

Soni and her new Arena X-Glide suit took the women's 100m breaststroke to a whole new level.

Soni broke the world record and in doing so became the first woman to break the 1.05.00 mark when she stopped the clock at 1.04.84.

How can we compare the eras of pre-suits, suits and super suits?

I swam in the era of pre-suits and suits and I witnessed the suit technology move from Lycra to paper, S 2000, aquablade, fastskin, fastskin 2 and fs pro.

I retired from the sport six months before the new polyurethane technology and now I find it impossible to compare my times. Watching my former team mates lose their world records because of the super suits is sad and frustrating.

In 2004 I won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke at the Athens Olympics in a time of 1.07.15. That time would have won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Less than a year later I wouldn't have even made the final.

Better swimmers or better suits?

In the sport of swimming you do everything you can in your preparation to swim a personal best. That best time may mean you only improve by a few hundredths of a second each year and that's what pushes you to succeed.

During this week we have seen swimmers improving not just by hundredths but by seconds.

Paul Biedermann swam an eight-second personal best to beat Ian Thorpe's 400m freestyle world record and improved four seconds to beat the 200m freestyle world record held by Michael Phelps.

The big question now is will Grant Hackett's world records in the 800m and 1500m freestyle survive?

After the fall of the records of de Bruijn, Thorpe, Jones and now Phelps, it looks highly unlikely.