Swimming at Paris Olympics rocked by ‘annoying’ two-word conspiracy theory

After three days of swimming action at the Paris Olympics, fans and commentators are all saying the same thing about the results in the pool.

Swimming fans have been left scratching their heads at the unusual prospect of not a single world record being broken in the pool at the Paris Olympics.

We are three days into competition and a world record hasn’t been broken or seriously threatened, with commentators quickly describing the venue at La Defense Arena as a “slow pool”.

Ariarne Titmus was more than two seconds outside her own 400m freestyle world record but still won gold. She and Mollie O’Callaghan were both off their personal bests in the epic 200m freestyle final.

Australia’s all conquering women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team set a new Olympic record, but their world mark from last year’s world champs remained.

France’s Leon Marchand and Canada’s Summer McIntosh have both set new world records in the 400m medley in the past 12 months, but they couldn’t do better in Paris despite blowing the field away en route to gold.

Of course it’s worth acknowledging that with the pressures of the Olympics, winning the race is more important than breaking records.

But it’s quite possible we won’t see a world record broken in Paris. In comparison, six world records were broken in Tokyo (two individual events, four relays). Eight world records were broken at Rio in 2016.

The pool is only 2.15m deep. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The pool at La Defense Arena is not super deep. Picture: Sebastien Bozon/AFP

Why is the pool ‘slow’ at the Paris Olympics?

The pool in Paris is believed to be 2.15 metres deep, whereas most international competitions are held in pools that are three metres deep. World Aquatics recommends a minimum depth of 2.5 metres for Olympic Games.

The pool has been constructed at the site of a pre-existing rugby pitch. Taylor Swift recently performed shows in the stadium.

The depth of the pool has clearly been a factor in the relatively slow times in the finals. The theory is that the deeper the pool, the less turbulence there is in the water and choppy waves on the surface are reduced.

It seems to be affecting breaststroke events in particular. The men’s 100m breaststroke was won by Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi in 59.02sec — the slowest winning time since Athens 2004.

For context, Adam Peaty’s world record is 56.88sec and he won gold in Tokyo in 57.37.

Australia’s Nicole Livingstone said in commentary: “The time was incredibly slow. They didn’t even break the 59-second barrier.”

Could we go the whole Olympics without a swimming world record? Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Cate Campbell said on Channel 9: “The pool is slightly shallower than we would normally see. You would normally want a three-metre pool.”

Swimming commentator Kyle Sockwell wrote on X: “Not sure how well it comes through on camera but this pool is WAVY and stays wavy for a long time.

“Athletes are undoubtedly swimming through some chop on second 50s and beyond and it’s likely (in my opinion) impacting a resistance heavy stroke like breaststroke more than others.”

Romania’s David Popovici was expected to swim in the 1:42-1:43 range in the 200m freestyle, but his time of 1:44.72 was enough for the gold in a nailbiting finish.

SwimSwam’s Braiden Keith said: “David Popovici’s winning time in the 200 free today would not have won Olympic gold at any Olympics since 2000. Ian Thorpe was .01 faster in 2004.

“A win’s a win though, the pool is most definitely slow.”

“It is about getting a hand on the wall first, it is not about swimming as fast as you can,” Titmus said after her 400m freestyle win.

“I did my best, I will forever be a back-to-back Olympic champion, which is really cool.”

Australian discus thrower Benn Harradine posted: “The pool isn’t deep enough, but everyone is competing in it. Sure we love to see WR and all … but medals.”

Former Australian backstroker Meagan Nay said: “Will we see an Olympic games with no WR in the swimming pool???

“Everyone in the same boat … Might not be the fastest boat but hey race the race …. Annoying tho, you can’t get the pool right at the Olympic Games …”

The breaststrokers are finding it choppy. Picture: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

Michael Phelps’ old coach Bob Bowman, who now mentors Marchand, reckons a swimmer would need to pull something extraordinary out of the bag to set a new world record.

“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,” Bowman said.

“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.”

McIntosh said everyone is in the same boat and the swimmers couldn’t blame the pool.

“The pool is 50 meters and it’s 10 lanes, so it’s a great pool. It’s an Olympic pool, I don’t think any Olympic pool should really be called slow,” she 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.”

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

“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 village, the food’s not what you are normally used to and the bus rides are longer.”

The golds are great, but where are the world records? Picture: Oli Scarff/AFP

It comes as former Australian swimmer James Magnussen criticised the living conditions and food options inside the Olympic village, declaring it wasn’t conducive to high performance.

“From our sample size thus far, this Olympics is showing that it may be one of the toughest environments we’ve seen to produce world record swims,” Magnussen wrote for News Corp newspapers.

“The lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance.

“They had a charter that said 60 per cent of food in the village had to be vegan-friendly and the day before the opening ceremony they ran out of meat and dairy options in the village because they hadn’t anticipated so many athletes would be choosing the meat and dairy options over the vegan-friendly ones.

“It seemed Paris wanted to be eco first, performance second at the Games. I don’t know if that’s a political stance, or if it’s a cost stance, but I think in the future we need to look to other options because the Olympics is the pinnacle sporting event in the world.”

Titmus broke the 200m freestyle record at the Aussie swim trials and two records were set at the American trials — Gretchen Walsh smashed the 100m butterfly record and Regan Smith took the 100m backstroke record off Kaylee McKeown.

Australia has three gold medals in the pool so far, with hope for more golds from McKeown in the backstroke events and 200m medley, Mollie O’Callaghan in the 100m freestyle, the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, Zac Stubblety-Cook in the 200m breaststroke, Kyle Chalmers in the 100m freestyle and Cam McEvoy in the 50m freestyle.

Originally published as Swimming at Paris Olympics rocked by ‘annoying’ two-word conspiracy theory