As far as swimming attire goes, I've heard that it has more to do with the material than the coverage. If you get a jammer that is made of a good water shedding material (i.e., more slick), I think current thinking is that you will actually go faster. We saw that with some of the full speed suits folks were sporting during the last summer games. On the other hand, a jammer that absorbs a ton of water would be more likely to slow you down than a brief made of the same material. I just bought new 2xu shorts, and they seem faster than my old tri shorts, and definitely hold less water than my TYR jammers. Just my 2 cents.