World Aquatics recommends that Olympic pools be 3 meters deep, but the temporary pool in Paris is 2.15 meters deepGetty Images
The Paris Games have not seen any world records fall in swimming and “murmurs have rippled through the sport” that the pool is “the problem,” according to Henry Bushnell of YAHOO SPORTS. The specific problem with the pool “is its depth.” World Aquatics recommends that Olympic pools be 3 meters deep, but the pool in Paris — a “temporary vessel plopped into a rugby stadium” — is 2.15 meters deep. It is “beyond the minimum standard of 2 meters that was still in place when Paris 2024 plans were approved,” but “below the new World Aquatics minimum of 2.5 meters.” In shallower pools, the water that swimmers displace with their strokes can “essentially bounce off the bottom of the pool and make the second 50 meters of a 100-meter swim ‘wavy’ or choppy.” More depth “lessens the impact” and some experts believe that “deeper pools maximize performance.” Swimmers have been “talking about the slowness, too.” British swimmer Adam Peaty, who holds the world record in the 100 meter breaststroke, said, “It’s been a strange one, in terms of times.” Italian swimmer Nicolo Martinenghi, who won gold in Sunday’s 100 breast final, said, “The time wasn’t fast for anybody; we spoke to each other about it” (YAHOO SPORTS, 7/29).
GOING SLOW: U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky after the women’s 400-meter freestyle final on Saturday said that she, Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus and Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh “probably all would say we would have liked to have been a little faster.” Titmus said that her finish was “probably not the time I thought I was capable of” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/29). NBC’s Rowdy Gaines said, “Breaststroke is what’s caused a lot of trouble. These waves in this shallow pool … is what’s caused so many issues for so many swimmers” (NBC, 7/29).
TECH ISSUE: German swim coach Bernd Berkhahn said the “issue with the pool in Paris is not just about turbulence.” He said that because the pool is shallower, the “clutter of tech furniture on the floor — equipment linked to cameras, timing and other technical needs — is catching the lights and reflecting it into the faces of swimmers in the last five metres as they approach the wall” (London TIMES, 7/29).
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Publish date : 2024-07-30 16:11:00
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