How Deep Are The Swimming pools The place Swimmers Set World Data?

It’s been nearly two weeks for the reason that swimming competitions wrapped up on the Paris 2024 Olympics, with the closing ceremony going down on August 12.

This 12 months’s video games sparked plenty of buzz, partly because of the questionable depth of the pool on the Protection Enviornment, the place world data have been sluggish to fall. Seen waves extra outstanding than regular in swimming pools of this stature led spectators questioning in the event that they may be contributing to slower instances.

It bought me pondering: are there any “sluggish” swimming pools the place world data have nonetheless been set? And the way deep are the swimming pools the place present data have been made?

Beneath, I’ve put collectively a listing of present data, together with the depth of the swimming pools they have been set in. Like we’ve talked about earlier than, most Olympic swimming pools are round 3 meters deep, and many of the present world data have been set in swimming pools like that. There’s a little bit of a suggestions bias right here – most large meets select deeper swimming pools for competitors, and large meets are the place probably the most World Data are set. I nonetheless assume it’s fascinating to overview.

ARE THERE WORLD RECORDS SET IN SHALLOW POOLS?

Completely. Other than the 4 world data set through the Paris Olympics, there are three different data made in swimming pools with depths of lower than 3 meters. Certainly one of these is the lads’s 50m freestyle world report, which, whereas set with an excellent swimsuit, was made by Cesar Cielo in his dwelling pool on the Pinheiros Membership in São Paulo. That pool’s depth ranges from 2.10m to 2.30m.

If we omit super-suited data, two stand out: Sarah Sjostrom’s 50m butterfly and Ariarne Titmus’s 200m freestyle.

One idea floated round by an Ivy League-educated Olympic gold medalist is that water depth is much less vital in everlasting swimming pools than in momentary swimming pools, due to much less cavitation of the physique of the construction creating much less waves.

Sjöstrom set her report 10 years in the past through the Swedish Nationwide Championships on July 5, 2014, in Borås on the Borås Simarena, which has a depth of solely 2 meters. This report can also be the longest-standing (excluding Liu Zige’s “unbeatable” 200m butterfly) amongst ladies’s data.

Extra lately, Ariarne Titmus set a brand new 200m freestyle report only a month and a half earlier than the Paris Video games. On July 12, 2024, through the Australian Olympic Trials in Brisbane, Titmus clocked in at 1:52.23, beating the report her teammate Mollie O’Callaghan had set on the Fukuoka World Championships in 2023. This report got here from the Queensland Aquatic Centre on the Sleeman Sport Complicated, which additionally has a depth of two meters.

Apparently, on this identical Brisbane pool through the June Trials, Kaylee McKeown (who holds the world report within the ladies’s 200m backstroke) swam the second-fastest time ever, simply 0.16 seconds off her report of two:03.14.

These examples present us that pool depth isn’t every thing in terms of breaking data. A report that’s lasted a decade was set in a 2-meter deep pool, simply as a report set weeks earlier than the Paris Video games was made in a pool shallower than the one in Paris.

SO, WAS THIS THE SLOWEST OLYMPICS EVER?

Probably not. Olympic and world data from previous Video games, the variety of data set in Paris isn’t all that totally different from Rio 2016. Paris noticed 4 world data, whereas Tokyo 2021 had six, however consider solely three years have handed since then.

Once we think about each Olympic and world data, Paris noticed 21 new data throughout 20 occasions. Tokyo had 21 data throughout 33 occasions, whereas Rio had 23 data throughout simply 12 occasions.

OLYMPIC AND WORLD RECORDS SET AT RECENT GAMES:

• Paris 2024: 21 data (20 occasions), 4 WR
• Tokyo 2021: 33 data (21 occasions), 6 WR
• Rio 2016: 23 data (12 occasions), 8 WR (7 occasions)

Apparently, probably the most “disappointing” performances appeared to occur through the early finals, just like the podium for the 100m breaststroke, which passed off on day two. In the meantime, the perfect performances, together with world data, got here within the last days, similar to Pan Zhanle‘s report on day 5 or the ladies’s medley relay on day 8.

I’ll go away these ideas right here for now, ready for extra solutions—lots of which have already come from the Olympic champions pushing boundaries as soon as once more.

LIST OF RECORDS WITH POOL DEPTHS

WOMEN’S WORLD RECORD

MEN’S WORLD RECORD

MIXED WORLD RECORDS