Why the Swimming Times are SO SLOW at the Olympics...

Is the Paris Olympic Swimming pool slow, or is there something else going on? Let me know what you think in the comments!

⏰ Prelims: 11:00 (Paris Time) | 5:00 (Eastern Time)
🏁 Finals: 20:30 (Paris Time) | 14:30 (Eastern Time)

📍LOCATION: Paris, France 🇫🇷

#Paris2024 #Paris #OlympicGames #ParisOlympics #Olympics

[syficc]

Pan Zhanle: "Eating meat here is like chewing wood",
Qin Haiyang: “It really has a huge impact. Basically, I am woken up at six o'clock every morning for testing.”

[mac]

“Below expectations” applies to so many aspects of these substandard Game conditions. Worse than the pool competition is the fact that organisers actually made triathlon athletes swim in the filthy Seine River.

[JoshSher_]

Sometimes I forget how refined sports have become and how close to perfection athletes have evolved.
So much that "little" things like this can have such a relatively big impact.
Fascinating!

[carloss]

At this level every piece counts: cardboard beds, hot bus, pool depth, sleep quality, food

[jayscaping]

I've also heard Popovici is staying in an AirBnB, so if he performs as expected then it would definitely show that the village conditions are having more of an effect than the pool

[cristiansmochina]

Not all swimming athletes stay in the Olympic village. Some wisely chose hotels next to the aquatic center and they are still slow

[sultanniazi]

The Chinese nailed it. They hosted the best Olympics ever and none of these issues existed. No one wants to hear that but it’s a fact.

[caffeinatedrabbit]

Depth of pool may be the cause. Swimmers create turbulence (waves). Shallow pool - waves cannot travel very far = MORE TURBULENCE. Deep pool - waves travel further and disperse more efficiently = LESS TURBULENCE. I swam at two similar size community pools. But, one is shallow and the other has a deep end. During lane swimming in the shallow pool, I was thrown around and had a difficult time staying in the lane. I didn't experience any problems while lane swimming in the deeper pool, even when it was crowded. Turbulence/opposing forces = less speed/more effort. Just a thought :)

[classicclassi]

People have said just keep the Olympics in Greece, I mean when it comes to sustainability for the environment and finance, that would make a lot of sense

[pormodr]

Suumer was -1.5s of the WR before the breaststroke leg, the pool depth for sure impacts breaststroke speed

[ninesehyper]

even tho the pool is shallow as heck. I think the main contributor is really the olympic village. I aint never seen athletes complain this much about those conditions in a hot minute. Imagine athletes are choosing to stay in an airbnbs for better conditions.

[카일마진]

Olympics Paris is looking like a contest on each countries budget for sports....bring your own food, book your own place, get your own vehicle

[wesdonze]

I was certainly expecting the ladies 400 free to be close to a world record for the winner given the high standard of the competitors

[jayscaping]

The swimming is not taking place in the aquatics center, it's in a different stadium venue that's quite a bit further away

[bpxlyewz]

I don’t think it’s the village conditions. They had cardboard beds in Tokyo and Japan summers are brutal, but some broke world records there. Plus, the U.S bought air conditioning units for our athletes in Paris. It’s the pool, probably depth and maybe temperature.

[tann_man]

Shear friction, the force applied horizontally from the surface of the water or the bottom of the pool particularly when underwater matters a lot. Research into the fastest modes of swimming have found underwater dolphins on your side are just as fast if not faster than the fastest widely known method back underwater dolphins. On your back you have the advantage of your weaker up kick pressing back into your rising body vortex which reduces drag. But on your side, if you're in the middle of the pool the side surfaces are much farther away and hardly exert any shear friction whatsoever. Using this notion it would make sense a more shallow pool would exert more friction on your stomach or back. Additionally as others have mentioned there's less diffusion of energy down and instead that energy bounces off the walls back into the swimmers in the form of waves. Furthermore you have the issue of the vacuum phenomenon when kicking near the bottom of the pool pulls the swimmer closer towards the bottom and adjustments need to be made for start and turn depths and the psychology of things feeling "off" and the dimensions of the pool slows everyone down.

tldr; its likely the pool.

[wesdonze]

Summer McIntosh was impressive in the womens 400 IM but no WR for her today - still well ahead ( and still a junior of course . I also heard just now that Adam Peaty of GB has tested positive for covid today so I wonder if he was feeling the effects of that yesterday and also wonder if covid is around in the village

[kevinmithnick]

Air conditioning is not only related to temp/humidity. Also air quality: fresh, clean air.

Poorly maintained equipment and/or bad ventilation leads to mold, bacteria, virus getting into people's lungs

[malik_alharb]

It's ridiculous that they couldn't replicate a pool with the proper depth

[TheEdmeaux]

Many American & Canadian swimmers are staying at a hotel next door to the swimming venue. I see them at breakfast and mid day. Some. But not all.