Zero World Records have been broken at the 2024 Paris Olympics through two nights of competition in the pool. The last time that no World Record was broken after just one day of competition was 1992, but here we are, entering night three with zero.
The topic of a “slow pool” continues after most of the top times in prelims were slower than they were in Tokyo during day 1 prelims. Then, in day 2 prelims, only two men were under the 1:46 mark after 10 had done so in Tokyo and four were under that mark in Rio.
The men’s 100 breaststroke on night 2 was also much slower than it was in Tokyo. Seven out of the eight finalists were under the 59-second mark in Tokyo while zero swam under that mark last night as a 59.03 by Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won gold.
“The time wasn’t fast for anybody; we spoke to each other about it,” Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy said after winning gold in the men’s 100 breaststroke.
Ken Ono, who is a mathematician at the University of Virginia and works with Todd DeSorbo, told Yahoo Sports, “The pool is fast compared to your neighborhood swim club. However, it is not ideal for record setting. The shallow depth is a primary reason. I have heard from a few competitors that they have been forced to (slightly) modify their dives off the blocks.”
The pool in Paris is shallower than the pool was in Tokyo three years ago. The two 50-meter pools in the Paris La Defense Arena are about 2.15 meters or 7 feet. This is over two and a half feet and 31.5 inches, to be exact, less than the pool at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as that pool was about 9 feet, 8 inches deep.
Sophie Hansson of Sweden spoke of her feelings about the pool to Swedish-based Dagens Nyheter saying, “It feels good in the swimming, and I can’t answer what it is that makes it not go faster.” Hansson swam a 1:06.96 for 13th in semifinals of the women’s 100 breast and did not advance to the final. That was over a second off her lifetime best and national record time of a 1:05.66.
Sophie Hannson’s comments are telling. She felt as though her swimming was good and can’t explain how that is incongruent with the times (and we’ve heard a few swimmers say as much). Well, allow me to explain:
The pool is shallow, therefore in the swimmers’ eyes they are covering more distance faster as the bottom is closer to them. When a pool is too deep, it seems in their perception as though they are travelling less distance as their field of vision hardly changes. This false perception of travelling more distance per second in the shallow Paris pool collides with the fact that the shallow pool produces insane (and even visible on TV) waves (both at surface level and underwater)… Read more »
now 3 nights
The french screwing it over one more time..
Pool is only thing that’s gonna stop Leon from
Getting the 200 IM WR
Swimswam out here going against the grain to screw with Betteridge’s Law.
The answer is yes.
In the Men’s 100 back, several swimmers almost hit their knees on the bottom when they jumped in.
Is it a Myrtha pool? Because one would think, even if the Paris organizer responsible for this mess of a pool didn’t know any better, someone on the Myrtha team would have mentioned to them that a 2m deep pool ia a bad idea.
Yes. They have even uploaded the video of making this pool. Check Instagram page of World Aquatics
Yes, very slow. Look at the 100 w backstroke jump in. The swimmers’ feet touch the bottom of the pool. And the underwater showed that they couldn’t go as deep because tons of equipment down there.
Man, I hate this pool the French put up. Could have been 3-m depth.
Kinda nice to see just good ole fashion racing. No times to worry about, just win, place, or show.
“Good old fashion racing” lol what any race old fashioned or modern ? Is about winning and fast TIMES as well
I have a different point of view. A race is a race and it’s different every time. And any one of the people winning these races at the Games would look you square in the eye and say “I’ll race you anytime, anywhere, in any pool.” Make no mistake, the Games are and has always been about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and that’s all.
Yeah but it may not affect everyone the same way
Exactly. For example, I’m concerned that back-half specialists like ZSC and Fallon will be at a disadvantage to the guys who take the 200 breast out fast and hang on.