Are the olympic swimmers required to shave or is just ideal?

Question

A lot of male swimmers are all clean shaven and even the synchro divers are clean shaven, including under arms. Is shaving ideal for swimmers and if it is why?

Answer 1

Fashion.  Some will say to make them swim faster, but I doubt it.

Mark Spitz (7 Gold Medals - the record that Phelps is trying to beat tonight) was pretty hairy.

Answer 2

Yes, is a must. To show a pleaant image to the world!

Answer 3

Since swimmers spend close to 3-5 hours everyday training in a pool full of chlorine, it closes the pores, and shaving allows the pores to open up and let a swimmer glide through the water smoother than they would with a body covered in hair.

So It would be ideal for swimmers to shave =]

Answer 4

Shaving body hair is not required.  It is done for the sole purpose of reducing your bodies drag in the water.  As a previous poster mentioned Mark Spitz was a hairy man, but he was a swimmer almost 40 years ago.  Since his time the sport of swimming has advanced immensely.  The full body LZR swimming suits, the caps to cover the hair on the head, and shaving all exposed body hair to help reduce the drag.  

On a side note about Mark Spitz, Speedo offered him $1million dollars if he could qualify for the olympics in 2000, even though he was faster in 2000 then he was in the 72 olympics and beat all of his then world records he was not fast enough to qualify.