No world records broken yet but swimmers, coaches say Olympic pool not to blame

PARIS – World records have yet to tumble in the Olympic pool at La Defense Arena by the end of the programme’s third day on July 29, but swimmers and coaches agree that the temporary structure built inside the indoor stadium originally used for concerts and rugby is not at fault.

Paris 2024 organisers were wary of constructing a brand new venue which could have proven to be a white elephant after the Games, leading to the transformation of the arena that allows 15,000 fans to soak in the action.

While eight world records were broken at Rio 2016 and six were set in Tokyo in 2021, they remain a distant dream with a third of the competition wrapped up in Paris even though Olympic records have fallen.

The women’s 400m freestyle “Race of the Century” did not live up to the hype, while even the closely contested men’s 100m breaststroke final – which had the top three separated by only 0.02 of a second – was still 2sec off world record pace.

“Most of the time, the Olympics isn’t particularly the best playground for the best swimming in the world you normally always see at world championships and local meets,” said Elijah Winnington, who took silver in the men’s 400m freestyle.

“There’s no pressure quite like the Olympics, but also the environment just doesn’t really permit for it. You’re walking way more in the (athletes’) village, the food’s not what you are normally used to and the bus rides are longer.”

French coach Denis Auguin said three world championships between the Tokyo and Paris Games, among other meets, made for a punishing schedule that did not give swimmers ideal preparation.

“We had only three years to prepare for these Olympics, but we had five years to prepare for Tokyo,” he said.

“We had many high-level competitions between Tokyo and now... (in the) long course and short course, European Championships – it’s so many. So we cannot prepare with the same work and the same time. That’s the only reason.”

Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh claimed her first Olympic gold in the women’s 400m individual medley and she was not bothered by the times, as she finished three seconds shy of her own world record in the final.

“It’s an Olympic pool, I don’t think any Olympic pool should really be called slow,” the 17-year-old said.

“No matter what, everyone’s racing in the same pool. It doesn’t matter if it’s the fastest or slowest pool in the world, I have the same goals.”

American coach Bob Bowman, who coached 23-gold Olympic champion Michael Phelps and now trains France hero Leon Marchand, said his swimmers did observe the pool was on the shallow side.

“They’ve noticed that it’s shallower, which it is, because particularly a lot of my swimmers are underwater. So it looks different because they’re closer to the bottom,” he said.

But the 59-year-old still expects world records to be broken during the meet – the programme on July 30 was yet to be over at press time.

“It’ll have to be a significant swim, though, because if you’re looking at the average times, a world record here would be very outstanding,” he added. REUTERS