When the United States Olympic trials begin latex zentai here Wednesday, swimmers will make as much news for what they are wearing as for what records they may set in qualifying for the Summer Games next month in Sydney, Australia.

The new  Black Latex Short Sleeves Blitz T Shirt are said to increase speed by up to 3 percent, which can make the difference between a gold medal and fourth place in a sport in which races are decided by hundredths of a second.

Most of the top American swimmers have welcomed the  Latex Dress with Neck Ornament as an inevitable advance in spider man costume technology that has brought the hinged blade to speedskating, aerodynamic bikes to cycling, the flexibility of fiberglass to the pole vault and graphite rackets to tennis.