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Is a “slow” pool impeding world records?
Swimming world records have been historically hard to achieve at these Olympics, with China’s Pan Zhanle setting the first one in Wednesday’s men’s 100m freestyle final. The culprit appears to be a “slow” pool.
What’s happening: The temporary pool at La Défense Arena is shallower than usual, causing choppier water — and thus slower times — than in deeper pools where there’s more space beneath swimmers for the water to bounce off and settle.
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The winners of the men’s 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke in Paris, for example, had the slowest gold medal times since the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, respectively.
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The “Race of the Century” between Katie Ledecky, Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh — who’ve combined for the 28 fastest times ever in the women’s 400m free — didn’t even come close to producing a world record, with all three falling more than two seconds short.
By the numbers: It’s not just world records — it’s Olympic records, too. Just look at the drop-off compared to the previous three Summer Games.
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London 2012: 9 world records, 25 Olympic records
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Rio 2016: 8 world records, 23 Olympic records
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Tokyo 2020: 6 world records, 33 Olympic records
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Paris 2024: 1 world record*, 11 Olympic records (four days left)
What they’re saying: “It’s absurdly slow,” one swimming official in Paris told SI, adding that the large number of underwater cameras means even less space for the choppy water to settle.
How did this happen? World Aquatics recommends pools have a depth of 3 meters, which is what they’ve been at every Summer Games since 2008. But the one in Paris — manufactured by the same company that’s built the pools for the last five Olympics — is just 2.15 meters deep due to structural constraints at the converted rugby stadium.
Of note: Such a depth won’t be possible in the future under World Aquatics’ new minimum standard of 2.5 meters. When the Paris 2024 plans were approved several years ago, that standard was just 2 meters.
The last word: While the “slow” pool has become a frequent talking point in Paris, many of the swimmers couldn’t care less. “Times don’t matter,” U.S. swimmer Paige Madden told Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell. “It’s all about place at the Olympics.”
*If no other world records are broken, Paris 2024 will join Berlin 1936, London 1948 and Helsinki 1952 as the only ones to see just a single world record fall in the pool.
Photos of the day
🇫🇷 Unprecedented double: Entering Wednesday, no one had ever won a medal in both butterfly and breaststroke at the same Olympics. Léon Marchand did it in the span of 116 minutes. And both medals were gold.
🥇 Ledecky cruises to gold: Katie Ledecky sailed to victory in the 1500m freestyle to win her 12th Olympic medal and eighth gold. She beat the silver medalist by 10.33 seconds (!!!).
🏀 That’s more like it: Team USA avenged their near-loss to South Sudan in qualifying with a convincing 103-86 victory to improve to 2-0. Next up: Puerto Rico on Saturday.
🇨🇦 Canada advances: Canada women’s soccer miraculously advanced to the quarterfinals despite being docked six points due to their drone-spying scandal.
Day 5 recap: More from Wednesday
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Athlete spotlight: Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele teed off this morning in the men’s golf competition. While they’ll be competing for gold, the title of PGA Tour Player of the Year may also be on the line.
It’s closer than you think: Scheffler (world No. 1) has rightfully garnered the most attention this year by putting together the winningest season since prime Tiger Woods. But defending gold medalist Schauffele (No. 2) isn’t that far behind, and could tip the scales in his favor with a win in Paris.
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Scheffler has won six times, including the Masters and Players Championship, to go along with two runner-ups, 10 top-five finishes and 14 top-10s. He hasn’t missed a single cut and he’s finished worse than 20th just once.
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Schauffele has won just twice, but both were majors (PGA, Open Championship). He’s also carded two runner-ups, seven top-five finishes and 12 top-10s. Like Scheffler, he hasn’t missed a cut, and he’s finished worse than 20th just three times.
Of note: While Olympic golf doesn’t officially count towards PGA Tour statistics, a gold medal in Paris could absolutely influence who wins Player of the Year.
Others to watch: Six other players in the top 10 are teeing it up this week at Le Golf National, which hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup. They include Team USA’s Wyndham Clark (No. 5) and Collin Morikawa (No. 6), Ireland’s Rory McIlroy (No. 3), Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg (No. 4), Norway’s Viktor Hovland (No. 7) and Spain’s Jon Rahm (No. 10).
More athletes in action:
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🏊♀️ Lilly King: The five-time Olympic medalist fell an agonizing 0.01 seconds short of the podium in the 100m breaststroke. Today, she can conclude her third and final Games with one last gold in the 200m breaststroke.
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🎾 Tommy Paul: The last American standing in men’s singles faces a tall task in today’s quarterfinal match against Carlos Alcaraz. He’s vying to become the first American man to win gold since Andre Agassi in 1996.
Best of Team USA social: Michael Phelps’ golf selfie … Olympian grip strength challenge … Snoop Dogg and his granddaughter play tennis
Team USA: News | Athletes | Shop
Follow along at TeamUSA.com and @TeamUSA on social media.
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Full medal count.
Watchlist: Women’s Individual All-Around
One of the marquee events of the Paris Olympics is just a few hours away, with 24 women’s gymnasts set to compete in the Individual All-Around Final.
Making history: With Simone Biles (2016 champion) and Suni Lee (2020) qualifying for Team USA, this marks the first time that two former all-around gold medalists will compete in the final.
Featured events:
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🤸 Women’s Gymnastics: Individual All-Around (12:15pm, NBC)
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🏊 Swimming: Four medal events (2:30pm, NBC) … Women’s 200m Butterfly, Men’s 200m Backstroke, Women’s 200m Breaststroke, Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay.
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🏀 Women’s Basketball: USA vs. Belgium (3pm, USA) … One of four games today.
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🏄 Surfing: Men’s and Women’s Finals (8pm, Peacock) … Rescheduled from Tuesday due to surf conditions.
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🎾 Men’s Tennis: Tommy Paul vs. Carlos Alcaraz (8am, Peacock); Novak Djokovic vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (1pm, Peacock) … Quarterfinals.
Medal events:
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⛵️ Sailing: Men’s (8:43am, Peacock) and Women’s Skiff Medal Races (9:43am, Peacock)
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🥋 Judo: Women’s 78kg and Men’s 100kg (10am, Peacock)
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🛶 Men’s Canoe Slalom: Kayak Singles Final (11:30am, E!)
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🤺 Women’s Fencing: Foil Team Final (1:30, E!)
Non-medal events: Archery, BMX Racing, Badminton, Basketball, 3×3 Basketball, BMX Racing, Boxing, Golf, Handball, Hockey, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo.
Primetime: Women’s Gymnastics All-Around (8pm), Women’s 200m Butterfly, Men’s 200m Backstroke and Women’s 200m Breaststroke (8:45pm).
For a complete schedule, click here. Every event streams live on Peacock. Sign up here.
The X Games-ificiation of the Olympics
Olympic organizers hope sports like BMX, skateboarding and breaking will help transform the Olympics’ graying fanbase by attracting a younger audience.
From Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg:
The largest public square in France’s capital city has a bloody and barbaric history. Place de la Concorde was the site where revolutionaries who toppled the French monarchy erected the guillotine and executed hundreds of their supposed enemies.
On August 11, 1792, a 39-foot statue of King Louis XV on horseback was overthrown and sent to be melted down. Over the next few years, crowds flocked to the square to witness the beheading of Louis XVI, his famous wife Marie Antoinette and other members of the nobility. The revolutionaries gave the square a temporary new name: Place de la Révolution.
More than 200 years later, Olympic organizers are trying to make Place de la Concorde the site of another revolution, albeit one that’s not so violent. This is where they’re staging an urban carnival of BMX biking, skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 basketball, sports that they hope will help transform the Olympics’ graying fanbase by attracting a younger audience.
It’s no coincidence, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams admitted, that surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and 3×3 basketball debuted at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Or that breaking [break dancing] is part of the Olympic program for the first time in Paris. The X Games-ification of the Olympics is part of the IOC’s bid to appeal to a younger demographic.
“We have to attract younger people. If we don’t, we’re dead,” Adams said. “It’s change or be changed. We would like to lead the change, not be led by it.”
Keep reading.
Lightning round
🎯 Surprise star: Most Olympic shooters wear ear protection and specialized glasses. Then there’s Yusuf Dikeç, who helped Turkey win silver while casually standing with his hand in his pocket and looking like he’d just been picked from the stands.
🏀 NBA jersey takeover: The NBA’s global explosion is on full display in Paris, not only on the court, but in the stands and the streets, where thousands of international fans are sporting jerseys of their favorite players.
🏓 Table tennis stunner: Sweden’s Truls Möregårdh, ranked 26th in the world, beat top-ranked Wang Chuqin of China to advance to the quarterfinals in perhaps the biggest upset of these Games.
🇯🇲 Jackson drops out: Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson won’t compete in the women’s 100m sprint, making American Sha’Carri Richardson an even bigger favorite to win gold.
Daily trivia
Five sports have been featured in every Summer Olympics.
Question: How many can you name?
Answer at the bottom.
In non-Olympics news…
Welcome (back) to the Show! Orioles 2B Jackson Holliday, MLB’s No. 1 overall prospect who struggled in his first call-up, returned to the big leagues and smacked a grand slam for his first career home run.
Plus:
Trivia answer: Athletics (track and field), aquatics (swimming), cycling, fencing and gymnastics.
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Source Agencies
