Why this year's Olympics might see fewer swimming world records than usual

Team GB has already seen some magnificent performances from its aquatic Olympic athletes, from Tom Daley and Noah Williams on the diving board, to Adam Peaty's silver medal in the 100-metre breaststroke.

But athletes, swimming pundits and even viewers at home have noticed something different about the Olympic pool hosting this year's swimming races and relays - it is much shallower than usual.

World Aquatics defines an Olympic-sized swimming pool as being 2.5 metres deep, with a recommended depth of three metres.

The pool hosting the swimmers of Paris 2024 is shallower than both of these figures - coming in at just 2.15 metres.

A shallower pool is said to slow swimmers down, as more waves created by the swimmers' movements bounce back off the bottom.

Deeper pools are believed to create less of this turbulence.

Competitors and experts have warned a shallower depth could affect athletes' performance, with Team GB swimmer Jacob Whittle describing conditions in the pool as "tough".

The swimmer narrowly missed out on the 100m freestyle semi-final.

"It's a tough pool to swim in, tough when you're on an outside lane," he told The Sun.

"It's just one of them pools, some pools feel great, some pools don't, a few waves, feels a bit strange being a bit shallower, nothing that we can't deal with."

He called the experience of swimming in a pool almost a metre below the recommended depth as "a bit like swimming in the sea".

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Byron Macdonald, American-Canadian swimming coach and former Olympian, told CBC News that Paris 2024's pool dimensions were slowing athletes down.

"What makes a pool fast or slow is the amount of turbulence you have around an athlete," he said.

"There's too much turbulence going on. I think that's the problem with this pool, it's too shallow."

Organisers of Paris 2024 have not confirmed why the pool is 0.85 metres shallower than in previous competitions, but Mr Macdonald believes it is to do with instructions given to builders by La Defense Arena.

"They were told by the people who run the arena here, the max we're going to give you is 2.15 metres and we don't want you to use any more of the stadium than that," he claimed.

In Tokyo 2020, when the pool was three metres deep, Adam Peaty won the 100 metre breastroke final in a time of 57.37.

Paris 2024's winner for the same event, Nicolo Martinenghi, secured gold with a time of 59.03 - which wouldn't even have placed him within the top five in the Tokyo final.

Despite concerns the pool would hinder world records being set, some have still been broken in the Paris pool.

Australia's Kaylee McKeown swam the women’s 100 metre backstroke in 57.33 seconds, breaking her own Olympic record of 57.47 set at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

Daniel Wiffen of Ireland swam the men’s 800 metre freestyle in 7:38.19, breaking the Olympic record of 7:41.28 set by Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine at the last Games.

Paris' Olympic pool was built specially in La Defense Arena, which is usually a rugby stadium, and has recently hosted concerts including Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

The pools are temporary and made of stainless steel. They arrived in kit form, and were erected in just 36 days, Olympic organisers confirmed.

They will be taken down after the Olympics and installed permanently, with one installed in Sevran and half a pool in Bagnolet.

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