Shallow pool sets Olympic records

The secret of the lack of records in swimming is revealed. The pool is not deep enough. He has 85 centimeters left. “At the largest competitions we have seen pools three meters deep, but this one is of much less value. [estimado em 2,15]”Of course, for a normal event it is still a great pool, but we are talking about the biggest sporting event and every detail is important. This is the factor that seems to be decisive compared to previous Olympic Games,” Daniel Marinho, technical manager of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, explained to Lusa.

The professor at the Department of Sports Sciences at the University of Beira Interior also says that “the deeper the pool, the more room there is for turbulence. [ocasionada pelas braçadas dos nadadores] dissipates and has less impact on the surface. The further an athlete is from a physical obstacle, the less hydrodynamic resistance he experiences. Therefore, swimming in the first lane or the third lane are different things. Pools have outer lanes to avoid obstacles, especially side walls.”

Two examples of how the shallower pool can affect swimmers’ performance: Romanian Popovici won the 200m freestyle in 1:44.72 minutes, the worst time for an Olympic champion in the distance since Sydney 2000; Italian Nicolo Martinenghi also struggled to win gold in the 100m breaststroke, which he completed in 59.03 seconds, the slowest time in two decades. Another observation that will no longer be relevant to the state of the pool is that the finals are slightly slower than the half-lengths. “It’s not unprecedented, but it’s a bit against the trend,” says Daniel Marinho.