ROME: An Olympic medal-winning swimmer exposed more than he bargained for when he dove into a pool wearing a bodysuit that split seconds before the start of his race.
Ricky Berens, an American swimmer who won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, tore a hole in his swimming costume while stretching before the start of the of the men's 4x100 relay at the Fina (the International Swimming Federation) swimming world championships in Rome on Sunday.
Shortly before stepping up to the starting block, the swimmer, a student at the University of Texas, reached down to stretch and split the suit.
"I kind of freaked out for just a second," Mr Berens said. "I felt like [the split] was almost down to my knees. I felt like I was putting on a pretty good show."
The aerodynamic full-body swimming costume has been the subject of controversy, with critics claiming that swimmers wearing them had an unfair advantage. Earlier this month, Fina ruled that, in competitive events from 2010, men's swimsuits may, at most, cover the area from the waist to the knee, while women can wear suits that at most cover from the shoulder to the knee.
Luckily for the 21-year-old swimmer, the wardrobe malfunction did not seem to slow him down; he still managed to win the gold medal for the US team.