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Jiang Chuqin

Social media users have questioned whether the pool used for the Paris Olympics is more shallow than in Tokyo given the significantly slower times being achieved.
Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi clinched the 100-metre breaststroke gold on Sunday with a time of 59.03 seconds – the slowest winning time since the 2004 Games in Athens.
By comparison, seven swimmers were sub-59 in the same event in Tokyo. Martinenghi would only have ranked eighth three years ago.
China’s Qin Haiyang, who swam 58.93 in the semi-final, finished seventh in the final with 59.50.
“I swam at my own pace for the first 50m, but then my pace got messed up and turned into chaos,” said Qin after the final, “I think there may be a problem with my state of mind.”

It left some fans online in China suggesting that perhaps other factors were to blame for the result, namely the pool’s depth.
The Paris pool was shallower than pools in previous Games, as its maximum depth is only 2.15m – 85cm less than Tokyo’s pool.
While it still met the standard set by World Aquatics in 2021 of two metres, it is lower than the governing body’s updated version released earlier this year of 2.5m for Olympics.
“This is the first time I have seen backstrokers bending their legs when they step on the bottom of the pool when preparing to start. Before, most of them could not touch the ground,” one Weibo user wrote.
“Who can tell me if the shallow water will affect their performance? I feel sorry for them if the athletes have the ability to swim faster but the swimming pool limits them. How many four years do they have in their lives for an Olympics?” wrote another.
However, one user said: “The swimming pool is the same for all athletes. Tan was simply slower than others, which cannot be blamed on the depth.”
Despite this, the winning time of 55.59 in the women’s 100m butterfly was exactly the same as in Tokyo.
Moreover, two Olympic records have also been broken in the pool: Australia’s three minutes, 28.92 seconds in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay is a new best and France’s Leon Marchand completed the men’s 400m individual medley in 4:02.95.
Paris built a new 6,000-seat aquatics centre for the Olympics, but it will be used only for diving, artistic swimming and water polo preliminary games. It did not meet World Aquatics’ requirement of a minimum of 15,000 seats for top-level swimming events.


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Sport

Paris Olympics 2024

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The Buzz

Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi clinched the 100-metre breaststroke gold with the slowest winning time since 2004


Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi clinched the 100-metre breaststroke gold on Sunday with a time of 59.03 seconds – the slowest winning time since the 2004 Games in Athens.


Swimming