A general view of the pool during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on Aug. 3.OLI SCARFF/Getty Images
For the duration of the Olympic swimming competition in Paris, there was no shortage of debate and hand-wringing over whether the pool built for these Games was “slow,” and the water was holding athletes back.
Not that there wasn’t ample evidence to support that theory. A conspicuous lack of world records, particularly in the first several days of the competition, spawned much talk about whether the pool was the problem.
Ultimately, there were four world records set in Paris, compared with six in Tokyo three years ago, eight in Rio in 2016, and nine in London in 2012.
In swimming, when too many records fall, people raise a skeptical eyebrow over doping or, as happened in 2009, sudden technological leaps in swimsuit design. Too few records also draw suspicion.
But as the lights go down on Paris La Défense Arena, and the temporary pool in question prepares to be dismantled, some of the biggest medal winners at the Olympics are greeting the whole situation with one big shrug.
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Canadian Summer McIntosh, the 17-year-old record-setting star of the Olympics, and American Kate Douglass, 22, a dominant force in the sport, both had similar reactions to the slow-pool debate in Paris.
They didn’t really care. As far as they’re concerned, what happens in the water matters more than the water itself. And everyone races in the same conditions.
With eight medals between them – Ms. McIntosh won three golds and a silver, while Ms. Douglass claimed two golds and two silvers – both said the topic didn’t consume much of their time.
“Personally no. I didn’t really notice it at all,” Ms. Douglass said, after finishing second to Ms. McIntosh in the 200-metre individual medley this weekend.
“Same goes for me,” said Ms. McIntosh.
There were several legitimate factors raised for why the pool would be slower, and they mainly have to do with waves, currents, turbulence and depth.
At 2.15 metres, the temporary pool installed in the arena, which is typically used for concerts and pro rugby, is shallower than other competition pools, which typically run three-metres deep. Paris organizers didn’t want to build the pool to that depth because of the stadium configuration.
Back in 2017, when the pool was first designed, the standard was at least two metres. But World Aquatics, the sport’s governing body, recommends competition pools be at least 2.5 or three metres, ideally, and most pools at big international competitions over the past two decades have met that depth.
Deeper pools are less wavy, or at least they calm down more easily, pool experts say. In Paris, some coaches and team officials looked anxiously at the water surface when it didn’t quite seem to settle sufficiently between the multitude of back-to-back races.
Other theories involved turbulence, caused by water bouncing off the bottom, the placement of the water jets, the power of those jets and the number of cameras beneath the surface, which all impact how the water acts, even if it’s in the most minute ways.
After taking the gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke, with a winning time that was the slowest at an Olympics since 2004, Italian Nicolò Martinenghi raised his own suspicions.
“The time wasn’t fast for anybody,” Mr. Martinenghi said.
But as other swimmers point out, pools are different all over the world. There is no one model. Some international meets are swum outdoors, where humidity and heat can impact a performance.
A similar debate often emerges at the Winter Olympics in long-track speedskating, where tiny variations in the way the ice freezes at the oval can impact race times. In that sport, altitude is usually to blame.
The way ice freezes at higher altitudes makes the track faster compared with competitions held closer to sea level. Speedskating venues at lower altitudes are oven derided as “slovals.”
“It’s all about place at the Olympics,” said American Paige Madden, who won bronze in Paris in the 800-metre freestyle and a silver in the relays. “Times don’t matter.”
As Ms. McIntosh says, you can’t worry about the pool, only your race.
“It’s completely out of our control. And we’ve been training years and years for this moment, so we’re not going to let the depth of a pool stop us now.”
When the pool hoopla began, Ms. McIntosh’s coach was quick to label it a distraction.
“We’re not talking about a pool or anything like that,” her coach Brent Arckey said after she won her first of three gold medals in the 400-metre individual medley.
“I think the best part about this level is it’s all about racing and that’s what she loves to do, so we just kind of focus on that.”
Ms. McIntosh acknowledged that she thought the topic got a lot of attention.
“I definitely was surprised by the amount of talk about it at the beginning, but I just tried to not get too caught up in it.”
Ms. Douglass said at race-speed, water doesn’t feel different.
“It definitely is a shallow pool. I have no idea if that makes it fast or slow,” Ms. Douglass said.
She prefers not to think about it, so it doesn’t creep into her mind, and then into her races.
“For us swimmers, it’s better to pretend that it’s not a slow pool, if that’s the case,” Ms. Douglass said.
“I kind of just tried to ignore that because if I tell myself there’s something wrong with the pool, then maybe that will get in my head and I’ll have a bad race.”