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
- Finals Live Recaps:
Let the conspiracy theories begin.
One of the main patterns of the first prelims session at the Paris 2024 Olympics were that the top times in prelims were considerably slower than they were both at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Championships. Which begs the question: is the La Défense Arena home to a “slow” pool?
First off, there’s important context that needs to be provided. On Friday, it was revealed that the Paris 2024 Olympic pool was considerably more shallow than recommended, as its’ maximum depth was 2.15 meters (7 feet, .5 inches). That’s 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) less than the depth of the Tokyo 2021 pool, and less than World Aquatics’ recommended depth of three meters.
Scientifically speaking, the greater the water depth, the faster the pool — shallow pools create more turbulence due to waves reflecting off the bottom of the pool. So it’s possible that the depth could have affected the speed of the swimmers. But by how much?
To answer this question, we compared the times from Saturday to those from 2023 Worlds and the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Time Comparisons, Prelims Winning Times:
| Paris 2024 | Fukuoka 2023 | Tokyo 2021 | |
| Women’s 100 fly | 56.50, Zhang Yufei (CHN) | 56.89, Zhang Yufei (CHN) | 55.82, Zhang Yufei (CHN)/Emma McKeon (AUS) |
| Women’s 400 free | 4:02.19, Katie Ledecky (USA) | 4:00.80, Katie Ledecky (USA) | 4:00.45, Katie Ledecky (USA) |
| Mens’ 100 breast | 59.04, Caspar Corbeau (NED) | 58.26, Qin Haiyang (CHN) | 57.56, Adam Peaty (GBR) |
| Men’s 400 free | 3:44.13, Lukas Martens (GER) | 3:42.44, Sam Short (AUS) | 3:43.67, Henning Muhlleitner (GER) |
| Women’s 4×100 free Relay | 3:31.57, Australia | 3:31.52, Australia | 3:31.73, Australia |
| Men’s 4×100 free relay | 3:11.62, China | 3:11.63, United States | 3:10.29, Italy |
Time Comparisons, Final/Semi-Finaling Time:
| Paris 2024 | Fukuoka 2023 | Tokyo 2021 | |
| Women’s 100 fly (16th place) | 57.90, Louise Macinnes (GBR) | 58.56, Katerine Savard (CAN) | 58.08, Brianna Throssell (AUS) |
| Women’s 400 free (8th place) | 4:03.83, Isabel Gose (GER) | 4:04.98, Li Bingjie (CHN) | 4:04.07, Tang Muhan (CHN) |
| Mens’ 100 breast (16th place) | 1:00.00, Ron Polonsky (ISR) | 1:00.22, Zac Stubblety-Cook (AUS) | 59.75, Dmitriy Balandin (KAZ) |
| Men’s 400 free (8th place) | 3:45.75, Oliver Klemet (GER) | 3:45.43, Antonio Djakovic (SUI) | 3:45.68, Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN) |
| Women’s 4×100 free Relay (8th place) | 3:36.28, Italy | 3:37.71, Japan | 3:35.93, Sweden |
| Men’s 4×100 free relay (8th place) | 3:13.15, Germany | 3:14.03, Israel | 3:13.13, Russia |
In total, three of the six events (womens’s 400 free, men’s 100 breast, men’s 400 free) contested on Saturday morning had slower winning times in prelims compared to both Fukuoka 2023 and Tokyo 2021, and all winning times were slower than Tokyo. However, the time it took to final or semi-final in the same races were slower than both Tokyo and Fukuoka in just the men’s 400 free (and by just a small margin). In addition, the semi-finaling time in the women’s 100 fly and the finaling time in the women’s 400 free Saturday were both faster than they were in Tokyo and Fukuoka.
While the first-place margins between Paris and Tokyo are pretty big in individual events, they did get smaller for both the men’s and women’s 4×100 free relays – especially the latter race.
So generally, it seems like only the top-end speed has been slower so far in Paris, but depth remains the same or even better than it was in the past. It’s also worth noting that prelims happened at night in Tokyo compared to during the morning in both Fukuoka and Paris, which could also account for time differences.
Could we end up being overreacting to this whole thing? Possibly. But we’ll have to wait until finals to know for sure.
Tom Johnson An investigation needs to be made into the depth of training pools in Europe, Canada, and Australia. Meanwhile, we Americans always correct our course when we are bamboozled. Our Colorado Springs pool needs to be shallower than regulation minimum depth so the minimum will feel DEEP 🙌 in competition.
Actually for what I have seen the stroke technique being used is not optimal and out of sync with the body. It has nothing to do with the depth of the pool and more with the physics of catch pull and push with the legs. Everyone seems to be top heavy and doing more pulling than pushing that is very counterproductive
I read that the shallower the pool the less the water can settle and becomes more dense/choppier as a result. That explains the slow times. The waters density gets higher, not the waves
Of course it will be slower. 2.1m v. 3m is no contest. Yes, it matters.
Maybe not “dramatic” differences in times, but it will impact. After two days of competition, it’s bearing out.
If the depth theory is correct, it should manifest itself mainly for dudes and sprint events which generate lot of turbulence. Let’s see.
59.0 to win the men’s 100 breaststroke seems to confirm this
Going to boldly also say that most of our COVID lessons are gone and we’re back to overtraining / not valuing competition like in 2021.
And undoubtedly it’s slower
Uhhh, what about 2023 worlds and the various meets since then? Super fast times being dropped literally every month.
I’m glad I ain’t your swimmer, your the type of coach, who, in the quest to stop “overtraining” have swimmers do 75 SCY Fly in practice and expect still them to do well in a 200 LCM Fly.
I don’t over train my swimmers they only swim 3 days a week 2 hours each session. They have lives, school, and work so I respect that. Is about quality of training not quantity we just came out of our first season as a club and all my swimmers dominated Division and Regionals and qualified for Junior Olympics next year. My 8 year old in a filed of 65 swimmers took first place, my 16 Year old 1st place 50 free in a filed of 42 swimmers, my other 8 year old 1st place overall in 50 free out 55 swimmers. Over training will make you hate the sport
I think a lot of people are quick to forget that prelims in Tokyo were held at night, naturally leading to faster swims.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. The pool is slow and it’ll prove itself out this evening and throughout the competition. Barely even any sub 48 splits in relays, slow 100M W fly top times, 402s vs 400s in the 400M W free etc.
4.02’s make way more sense tho when you know the final was gonna be a dogfight. Why race your final in the heats when you are good enough to cruise in? Doesn’t make sense I’m such a competitive race. Time will tell whether it’s truely slow