How Katie Ledecky and Leon Marchand Overcame Olympic Pool Obstacles

"This temporary pool was built at La Defense Arena in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris (France), for the Olympic competitions. However, this pool is being monitored because it has the potential to affect the performance of swimmers. To date, only 1 world record has been broken and 12 Olympic records, which is considered very low compared to previous Olympics," said Marca (Spain).

The swimming pool at the 2024 Olympics will be shallower and slower, hindering athletes' competition.

"Current discussions revolve around the depth of the pool used for the 2024 Olympics, which is 2.15 meters. This depth, although higher than the Olympic standard of 2 meters, is still lower than the minimum of 2.5 meters recommended by World Aquatics (the world swimming body)," Marca emphasized.

According to The Athletic (UK), "The difference in the swimming pool at the 2024 Olympics is very noticeable when compared to the pool used at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with a depth of more than 3 meters."

“It’s ridiculously slow,” an unnamed swimming official told Sports Illustrated . “The 2024 Olympic pool lacks depth, but it’s also ridiculously high. And when you have a shallow pool with underwater cameras like we have now, it doesn’t help with settling the water, it gets in the way and it affects the athletes,” the official added.

Amandine Aftalion, a scientist from France, told The Athletic : "The shallower depth of the pool could lead to increased turbulence in the water, creating more resistance for swimmers. This factor could contribute to the lack of new world records at the 2024 Olympics, which is expected given the current growth of swimming and the continuous improvement of athletes."

Thanks to her efforts, Katie Ledecky (left) won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal, while Leon Marchand (right) won 3 spectacular gold medals for French swimming.

As of August 2, the 2024 Olympic swimming competition continues to lack world records, with only one record set by Chinese athlete Pan Zhanle in the men's 100m freestyle. Compared to Beijing 2008, which saw 25 world records set, Tokyo 2020 (competing in 2021) saw 6 records, and Rio 2016 saw 8 new records.

On the 2nd of August, American swimmer Katie Ledecky won only one more silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay (the Australian team won gold and broke the Olympic record). This was Ledecky's 13th Olympic medal, making her the female swimmer with the most medals at the Olympics ever.

Ledecky becomes female swimmer with most medals at Olympics

In another event, 17-year-old Canadian athlete Summer McIntosh won her second gold medal at the 2024 Olympics when she easily won the 200m butterfly event with a time of 2 minutes 03.03 seconds, also breaking the Olympic record.

American swimmers were consoled by Kate Douglass's 200m breaststroke gold medal, continuing to compete with Australian swimmers until the final day of competition on August 4.

In the swimming medal rankings, Australia still leads with 5 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze. The US is in second place with 4 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze. Host France is in third place with 3 gold, all won by male swimmer Leon Marchand. The Canadian and Italian swimming teams are next with 2 gold each.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/katie-ledecky-va-leon-marchand-da-vuot-qua-tro-ngai-ho-boi-o-lympic-nhu-the-nao-185240802085545473.htm