Wardrobe malfunction fails to deter Ricky Berens

An Olympic gold medalist swimmer from US suffered a major wardrobe malfunction after his bodysuit split just as he dived into the pool at the world championships in Rome, but it did not deter him from winning the gold medal for the US team.

An Olympic gold medalist swimmer from US suffered a major wardrobe malfunction after his bodysuit split just as he dived into the pool at the world championships in Rome.

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Ricky Berens, 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 swimming world championships in Rome on Sunday.

"I was kind of freaked out for just a second," Berens said. "I felt like (the split) was almost down to my knees. I felt like I was putting on a pretty good show," he said.

The aerodynamic full-body swimming costume critics claim gives swimmers an unfair advantage. Earlier this month, Fina
(the International Swimming Federation) ruled that, in competitive events from 2010, men's swimsuits may, at most, be
from the waist to the knee, while women can wear suits that at most cover from the shoulder to the knee.

The wardrobe malfunction did not deter the 21-year-old swimmer from winning the gold medal for the US team.