ADIDAS may be about to follow Nike’s flight from professional swimming. The German company, which has poured tens of millions of dollars into the sport over the past 10 years, warned it could abandon competitive swimming and the race suit market if the sport does not introduce “fair and professional” rules and approval processes.

A source close to the organisation that draws up guidelines for Fina, the international swimming federation, believes the sport’s financial future hangs in the balance at a time of economic crisis. The Sunday Times revealed last week (see below) that a call by USA Swimming to ban high-tech bodysuits from international competition coincides with the imminent arrival of the “doping suit” - a skintight shoulder-to-ankle costume that will boost performance by interacting directly with a swimmer’s central nervous system and brain.

The problem started when Fina approved the Nasa-designed Speedo LZR racer. Within six weeks of its launch in February, 18 world records had fallen. Of the 90 world records set this year, 70 were established by swimmers wearing the LZR, while Speedo-clad athletes won 89% of the Olympic medals in Beijing.

Hundreds of performances from more than 25 leading swimming countries showed average speed gains of more than 1.5% across almost all Olympic disciplines, causing swimmers and federations to abandon contracts in favour of wearing the suit they believed they needed to win a medal in China.

The sound of empty cash registers rang out from rival manufacturers. Nike released its swimmers. Adidas stuck to its guns but had only one big success, Germany’s Britta Steffen winning the 50m and 100m freestyle. TYR, which spent three years and several million dollars developing its Tracer Rise suit, filed an antitrust lawsuit in California in May, accusing Speedo, USA Swimming and its national team head coach Mark Schubert (who said in support of the LZR that swimmers had a “black-and-white decision: the money or the medal”) of conspiring to block competition.

Sportswear company Arena was abandoned by world 100m freestyle champion Filippo Magnini and the Italian federation, while another suit manufacturer, Diana, complained to Fina that it had had a suit containing “plasticised” panels similar to the LZR’s months before the launch of the Speedo suit. The Fina president, Mustapha Larfaoui, declared Beijing “a huge success for our sport”. However, an industry expert said: “Nike is gone. Adidas could well be next. Adidas hardly needs swimming. Swimming needs adidas. Nike is unlikely to be persuaded back. The sport is in disarray.”

Fina director Cornel Marculescu has called suit manufacturers to a meeting in February.

The ripples of protest are spreading. An industry source said: “There’s a long-term price to pay for short-term decisions.”

Explore More Sport

• Athletics

• Boxing

• Cycling

• Sailing

• US Sport