2024 Paris Olympics Day 2 Overreaction: A Meet by Any Other Name

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
  • Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
• La Défense Arena — Paris, France
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Full Swimming Schedule
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Pick ’em Contest
• How To Watch
• Entry Lists
• Live Results
• Prelims Live Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2
• Finals Live Recaps: Day 1

The following article is my opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of SwimSwam as a whole.

It’s been two 5am wake-ups in a row, which I haven’t done since [name redacted] broke the rules during training camp at [place redacted] so [organization redacted] gave us the earliest practice slot as punishment. All that to say, apologies if I am not as sharp this morning.

It’s still hard to believe the Paris Olympics are happening right now. I think Yanyan put it best re: how surreal it is to see swimming be mainstream:

It’s like your favorite Indie band going mainstream but only for a week

— Yanyan Li (@yyanyanli1) July 27, 2024

So, onto the musings.

What’s in a Time?

This morning, only the women’s 100 breast took a faster time than Tokyo to earn a second swim, and even then by just a hair. By that metric, both the men’s and women’s 200 free, men’s 400 IM, and men’s 100 backstroke all regressed.

But did they?

It’s easy to forget that times are not the only measure. If swimmers were perfectly repeatable machines, prelims would be totally unnecessary because we’d all know Ariarne Titmus has the worldrecord.exe program downloaded and Mollie O’Callaghan does not. Why not stop there? There’s no need for competition — we can just stare slack-jawed at a 1:52 and find it unbelievable.

My point being: it’s prelims, it’s a meet that only happens once every four* years, and the swim streets say the pool is questionable. (More on the pool later.)

Even if the times weren’t quite there — outside of Hubert Kos, who popped a Hungarian record in the 100 back, and Tatjana Smith (née Schoenmaker), who topped the women’s 100 breast in 1:05.00 — there were a number of converging story lines that will write their conclusions over the next few days.

Daiya Seto, despite being slower than his Tokyo prelims time, made the 400 IM final after a heartbreaking 9th-place finish three years ago. David Popovici aka Chlorine Daddy made his Paris Olympics debut in the 200 free. Li Bingjie had a redemptive swim after missing the 400 free final yesterday.

I have no doubt these athletes will be faster through the rounds, but even if my powers of prophecy are flawed, it just means they’re human. And that’s what makes sport interesting at the end of the day, that it’s a human out there performing these amazing feats.

What’s in a Pool?

Emma Weber‘s cap, apparently.

【珍事】
女子100Br 予選
係員の男性がプールに飛び込んで拾う珍事が発生
🇺🇸Emma Weberのシリコンキャップが水中に落ちてしまい、中断した
救世主となった係員へ会場から大歓声！#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/qVVfRFtQBh

— 競泳NEWS (@swimcoverage) July 28, 2024

Ah, the wonders of a live broadcast. Unfortunately the linked video above does not include the yellow circle the NBC commentators drew over this man’s swimsuit as he bravely ventured forth to retrieve a lost cap. It’s moments of levity like these that remind me that this is still just a swim meet where normal swim meet things can happen.

There has been a lot of chatter about the quality of the pool lately, from the depth to the massive puddles visible on the deck, but I often find myself thinking it could be so much worse. (I once swam backstroke in a pool while they were actively drilling holes for the flag poles on deck.)

Of course, it’s the Olympic Games, which carries an amount of prestige not present in other competitions. It should be held in the best pool on the planet, equidistant from every nation to mitigate jet lag, and a five minute downhill stroll from the athletes’ village.

It’s even more a testament to these athletes’ abilities that they’re performing under subpar conditions. At the end of the day, as Lukas Märtens said emphatically last night, it’s about the race. Years from now, people will remember who stood atop the podium and not that their long arms skimmed the bottom of the pool during their stroke.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Put simply, I am excited to soak in the remaining seven days of swimming. I will be sad when it ends. This is the most coverage our sport gets, and it brings more than athletes together. While there’s room for criticism on administrative aspects of the event, that doesn’t take away from the fact it’s a swim meet and an opportunity to share the sport we love with the general population.

How often can you tell your grandma to turn on the TV, swimming is on? Not a trick question, it’s every four years. So enjoy it while it lasts!