Two words
Laminar flow!
The swim crowd are not the only ones against new tech.
Riblets were used on the bottom of the 12-Meter Stars & Stripes during the 1987 America’s Cup. They are tiny v-shaped grooves that were applied to the hull on a vinyl tape (from the 3-M company).
Soon after their televised debut, they were outlawed by the racing rules, which now prohibit “specially textured” surfaces that alter “the character of the flow of water inside the boundary layer.”
Outlawed because they allowed the US entry to kick a$$ - and dominate the series. A one minute split is quite the deal.
I wonder when we see this in the Speedos?
I think we have been seeing this for quite awhile. This was the the idea behind the "Shark Skin" suite that was introduced several years ago.