Night 3 of the 2024 Paris Olympics still continues to show that the times at this Olympics have been slower overall than in Tokyo. Depth has already been discussed as a factor but this isn’t just the depth as an independent factor. There seems to be a lot more going on here.
One reader, under the name “Wow” proposed that the fact that the Australian Olympic Trials pool depth was even shallower than the competition pool this week in Paris. The depth in the indoor 50 meter pool at the Brisbane Aquatic Center is 2 meters deep, shallower than the depth of 2.15 meters in Paris.
Despite the pool depth in Brisbane being shallower, the meet at least featured a World Record in the women’s 200 freestyle, an event that was contested tonight on night 3 where Mollie O’Callaghan was about a second off of her time from last month’s swim in Brisbane.
Replies to “Wow”‘s comment also give examples of other factors to consider here. Another factor is the field that the athletes are swimming in as the competition is faster here, causing more waves. One could give a counter argument to this and argue that the faster competition is fuel to the fire.
As far as the pool goes, temporary pools built for meets like these (another example being US Olympic Trials) cavitate much more than permanent pools do. According to the Indianapolis Star, the US Trials pool was 8.2 feet deep, about a foot deeper than the 7.05 feet deep pool in Paris. Two World Records were broken at US Trials with the women’s 100 fly and women’s 100 back.
Now, let’s look at the data. The chart below compares all events contested and all sessions of those events. The winning time was compared, the 3rd place was compared to show a difference in the podium (although this is not as important in prelims), and 8th was compared to show the slowest time it took to advance to the final and the slowest time in the final.
Which Place Was Faster Through 3 Days In Paris- All Sessions, All Events
| Tokyo | Paris | |
| 1st Place | 20 | 12 |
| 3rd Place | 21 | 12 |
| 8th Place | 21 | 12 |
*The women’s 100 butterfly is committed from the above tally as Maggie MacNeil‘s time from Tokyo tied Torri Huske‘s winning time from Day 2 in Paris. This explains the number being one less for 1st place.
These numbers were collected from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 analysis.
drug-free
So you’re saying Summer McIntosh, Tatjana Smith, Thomas Ceccon, Adam Peaty, Katie Ledecky, Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, David Popovici, Lukas Martens, Leon Marchand, Gretchen Walsh etc were using PED prior to Paris?
yes
At this point, anyone who denies the pool is SLOW is delusional.
After THREE days, and still NO WORLD RECORD!
when was the last time it happened, if ever?
Then consider these winners time:
Summer McIntosh 4:27.71 (three seconds slower than her PB)
David Popovici 1:44.72 (two seconds slower than his PB)
Thomas Ceccon 52.0 (0.4 second slower than his PB)
Tatjana Smith 1:05.28 (0.46 slower than her PB)
Mollie O’Callaghan 1:53.27 (0.79s slower than her PB), Ariarne Titmus 1:53.81 (1.44s slower than her PB)
Even when they don’t break World Record or Textile Record, I would have expected these swimmers to swim AT LEAST:
Summer 4:25
Popovici 1:43
Ceccon 51.8
Tatjana 1:04.8
Mollie and Titmus 1:52.7
And none of them did it.
I know the reason: Nobody is tapered.
I heard Grimes isn’t tapering until Brisbane 2032
She should never taper, because her untapared time was faster.
Watch any event and you’ll see how much wash/waves there are in the lanes vs other international events. It doesn’t really matter but its lame
Yup, I’m no elite swimmer or swimming coach, but surfing competition might as well held in this pool instead of Tahiti.
Swimswam should do an analysis on whether the number of strokes each finals athletes are taking is more than their SB. And see if this increases as distance increases. If so, that would support the turbulence theory
Could it be the water? I know I have swum in different pools where the water feels either more slippery or thicker (it is weird to describe, but I’m sure anyone who has swum for any period of time can think of what I am trying to say).
I know that feeling you are talking about but that has to do with an imbalance in chemicals and purely a “feel” the water has. Any actual change in viscosity of the water would really pop out in distance events. Not saying it’s an impossibility just not a variable that would seemingly be a contributing factor.
This Guy with a take. The feeling you are talking about is being bad at swimming or out of the water for a long time. You can’t tell a difference from the chemicals chief
I think there are rules regarding salinity concentration
They aren’t swimming in the dead sea… And perhaps I should have prefaced my other comment. None of you commenters can possibly feel a difference in the ‘salinity’ or ‘feel’ of the water. No offence.
There have been 6 events so far with semifinals. 5/6 swimmers in Lane 4 have added time from semis to finals (MOC the exception). 3/6 have lost gold, 2/6 lost gold where their semi time would have won (W2, Peaty).
I know lane 4 doesn’t guarantee anything but these seem like concerning stats that suggest being in the middle with the fastest swimmers is really slowing people down.
Nah, people are messing around in prelims and semis and you can’t really find any sort of correlation
The pool is terrible and that’s on France. But the facts are that Team USA has been a big disappointment. The athletes and coaches have done their job but have been totally let down by the USA Swimming staff and administrators. After this debacle is over, there needs to be a TOTAL and COMPLETE housecleaning.
Can you offer some examples of how admin are responsible for this?
Huh?
USA is performing well related to their season best and entry time.
If you think Lilly King and Murphy should have won 100 breast and 100 back you’re the one who’s delusional.
They had a chance, but they were not the favorites.