The Paris Olympics will not be a quiet Olympic Games for swimmers. The dirt in the Seine River has caused many training sessions to be suspended and triathlon events to be rescheduled. It has even cast such a shadow over the competitions planned to be held on the river that, at the height of the confusion, the possibility of the triathlon being reduced to a duathlon consisting of only running and cycling events arose. Everything suggests that the Paris2024 swimmers will face another unexpected enemy: La Défense pool.

And not because of the quality of its water or its bacterial concentration. E. coli And Enterococcus. No. The problem this time is meters deep.

Some Olympic record-breaking eventsThe Olympic Games are still ahead of us, but for now the Paris event highlights the lack of world records in swimming. New York Timesk Yesterday I published a thought-provoking assessment, although it was provisional and not exactly the same as the last photo: nine world swimming records were broken at the 2012 London Olympics; eight at Rio 2016 and half a dozen at Tokyo 2021. Not to mention the 23 records set in rubber suits at Beijing 2008. Until yesterday, the Paris 2024 counter was at zero. The first was achieved by Pan Zhanle in the 100-meter freestyle.

Barely a week after the Games began, the waters of La Défense Arena in the French capital have barely broken any world-class records. The event features top swimmers such as Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, France’s Léon Marchand or America’s Katie Ledecky competing in their prime, a trend that has seen Olympic records being broken in Paris. On Tuesday, for example, Kaylee McKeown broke an Olympic record but fell short of Regan Smith’s world record.

(Plus) the problem of brands. This isn’t the only clue that something is going on at the Paris pool. Country recently published another illuminating comparison: the scores recorded by swimmers who won gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle at recent editions of the Olympic Games.

Gold was “paid” in Athens in 2004 in 1:44.71, in Beijing 2008 in 1:42.96, in London 2012 in 1:43.14, in Rio 2016 in 1:44.65, in Tokyo 2020 in 1:44.22 and in Paris 2024. Romanian David Popovici won the event with a time of 1:44.72, a fraction of a second better than at the last Games and well ahead of the winners of the 2008 and 2012 events.

“This pool is not deep”. It’s not all signs and balances of world records. Swimmers hinted that something was creaking at Paris 2024. Some of the most notable names in the discipline pointed in the same direction: the Olympic pool at La Defénse Arena in Paris, the indoor stadium. Normally played by the Racing 92 club, where Myrtha Pools’ prefabricated stainless steel trophy now stands, where swimmers measure each other and challenge a common enemy: the stopwatch.

“This pool is not deep, not as deep as the others,” said Leon Marchand of France, who shines with a gold medal and an Olympic record in the 400-meter medley but wants to rewrite his world record. He was not the only one to comment on the features of the Paris pool.

“Doesn’t follow the rules”. Ledecky also said it was not “deep enough” and Spaniard Hugo González went further, reminding that “as of today, it does not comply with the World Aquatics rules”. “It seems remarkable, but in the end, if it is slower, it is slower for everyone, we are on equal terms”, explained the Spaniard. His thought can be applied to the competition between athletes swimming in their own lanes in the same pool, but not when it comes to beating the other opponent, the stopwatch, in the fight for records.

Doesn’t he follow the rules? The company that installed the pool claims that it “complies with all standards.” What’s more, the manufacturer, Italian firm Myrtha Pools, has extensive experience in Olympic venues, and Marchand himself noticed that the glass – although not very deep – was “on top.” So several questions arise: Is the swimming pool in Paris too shallow? Does it not meet the minimum standards? If so, how was this possible? And the million-dollar question… How much does it affect athletes?

One of these questions was answered explicitly by Hugo González himself: although it may sound contradictory, the pool does and does not meet the standards. This is because, beyond the meters of draft, it is a matter of time and calendar. “Today we know that it does not comply with the World Aquatics regulations. When it was built, it did, but now it is 2.5 m deep and its dimensions are between 2.1 and 2.20,” he said in the statements compiled by SER.

Change at the wrong time. This is the key. Newspaper The Parisian It states that the depth of the prefabricated stainless steel tank does not exceed 2.15 m (some sources mention 2.2 m), which perfectly corresponds to the minimum required by the federation during certification. The problem is that shortly after the agency revised its guidelines and began to request pools with a depth of 2.5 m, well above the La Defénse pool.

This is no small matter, as Olympic swimmers have made clear. A good example of this is the discussions surrounding the Paris Olympics. For reference, the ideal depth for a swimming pool is generally accepted to be three meters. The AP recalls that the portable pool set up in the Indianapolis tests measured 2.8 and achieved two world records.

Is depth that important? The key will be in fluid physics. Biomechanist Raúl Arellano explains it more specifically in vortices: Countryproduced by elite swimmers during certain phases of underwater swimming. “These are rotational wave-like flows that propel swimmers and produce their maximum energy when done in large enough areas,” explains the expert: “But if you get too close to the bottom or the surface, these vortices are less efficient. Swimmers go deeper than 1.5 metres. If the pool is 2.5, you still have 1 metre below you. In Paris, the distance to the background has been reduced.”

The key, therefore, is how the depth of the pool affects swimmers as they move underwater. It may seem like a small issue, but for elite athletes it has a big impact on longer races, such as the 400m, where time is measured in hundredths of a second.

“When you swim you create a wave, and the wave goes behind you and underneath you,” he agrees. New York Times Amandine Aftalion, of the French National Research Centre, said: “If the pool is too shallow, the waves will reflect on the bottom and cause turbulence in the water, which will slow down swimmers. Since 2008, it has been recommended that the pool be 3 metres deep. […]”The minimum is two meters, but three meters is recommended because it is much better for recordings and limits the waves that reflect off the bottom and create resistance.”

Is there any further explanation? Yes. In an article published in The Conversation, Shane Keating, a professor at UNSW Sydney, investigates how La Défense pool might affect athletes and acknowledges the possibility that swimmers, particularly in events such as the 400m freestyle, “are acting unconsciously. Adjusting their speed to match the slower speed of the surface.”

However, Keating leaves out other relevant factors that could explain the record drought: the “perception” of a “slow pool” or simply that athletes are gradually “approaching the limits of human performance.” “At least until we figure out how to break them again,” he adds. Until then, he thinks, “we shouldn’t be surprised if the rate of record-breaking performances declines over time.”

Others have pointed to other theories, such as the “pressure” swimmers feel in the pavilion when swimming in front of a large audience. “People put so much pressure and expectation on themselves,” Australian sprinter Kyle Chalmers told The Associated Press. “A lot of people have never swam in the Olympics. The nervous energy of having 15,000 fans in the stadium is insane. I love it, personally,” he said, “but I think people absolutely crack under the pressure.”

Images | SpecialOCanada (Flickr) and Leah Hetteberg (Unsplash)

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