IMHO wetsuit w/ short legs are a waste of $ wetsuits provide bouyancy to parts of the body that tend to sink most - the legs with a shrotie - for me at least- there is no bouyancy for the legs

BUT they probably were not wearing shortie wetsuits but rather speedsuits/skinsuits a swimsuit not made of neoprene but still helps w/ their hydrodynamics like the fancy swimsuits they use in the last olympics to break all those records:
http://www.lane4swim.com/wt80skinsuit.html

When a race is not wetsuit legal, it doesn't matter how large the wetsuit is -- nothing made of neoprene in that thickness is allowed. The pros were wearing swim skins, which are designed to make you more hydrodynamic by using coatings so that the water flows smoother over you.

We have a BlueSeventy one, and Mike liked it. I've yet to use it. I have also heard good things about the ones by Nineteen and XTerra. That said, they seem pretty expensive for the benefits you get. Where I am as a swimmer, I probably wouldn't go buy one for most races. The one we have was from when Mike did Kona, and that trip is expensive enough that we didn't really notice the cost of this addition ;)