By Rohith Nair, Reuters
The Olympic pool at La Defense Arena. Photo: AFP / SEBASTIEN BOZON
World records have yet to tumble in the Olympic pool at La Defense Arena in Paris 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 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 in 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 400 metres freestyle "Race of the Century" did not live up to the hype while even the closely-contested 100m breaststroke final - which had the top three separated by only 0.02 seconds - was still two seconds off world record pace.
"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," said Elijah Winnington, who took silver in the 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."
'It's 50 metres'
Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh claimed her first Olympic gold in the women's 400 metres individual medley and she was not bothered by the times as she finished three seconds shy of her own world record in the final.
"The pool is 50 metres 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," the 17-year-old had 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-times gold medallist 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.
"It'll have to be a significant swim, though," he added. "Because if you're looking at the average times, a world record here would be very outstanding."
- Reuters
