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Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics
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The swimming competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were held from 27 July to 9 August 2024. There were 35 swimming events in the pool and two marathon swimming events in the open water. The pool events took place from 27 July to 4 August at the Paris La Défense Arena, and the marathon swimming events took place from 8 to 9 August between Pont Alexandre III and Pont de l'Alma in the Seine river.
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France's Léon Marchand won all four individual events he entered at the Games. Four world records were broken, by: Pan Zhanle in the men's 100 m freestyle, Bobby Finke in the men's 1500 metre freestyle, and team United States in the women's 4 × 100 metre medley and mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relays. Some slower than expected performances contributed to media speculation that the Paris 2024 pool was slow.
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Events
Pool swimming
Pool swimming featured a total of 35 events (17 each for men and women and one mixed event). All pool events were contested in a long course (50 metres long) pool at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool arena for the events.[2]
The following events were contested for both men and women (distances are in meters):[3]
- Freestyle: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1500;
- Backstroke: 100 and 200;
- Breaststroke: 100 and 200;
- Butterfly: 100 and 200;
- Individual medley: 200 and 400;
- Relays: 4 × 100 free, 4 × 200 free; 4 × 100 medley;
In addition, there was one event which included athletes of both genders: the mixed 4 × 100 metres medley relay.[3]
Marathon swimming
Marathon swimming consisted of two events: the men's and women's 10 kilometer races.[4] Both were contested between Pont Alexandre III and Pont de l'Alma in the Seine river.[5]
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Achievements
France’s Léon Marchand won all four individual events he entered at the 2024 Games: the 200 breaststroke, the 200 butterfly, and the 200 and 400 individual medleys. Eric Goodman from NBC called Marchand's 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly double win "unprecedented", as both events were on the same night.[6] It was the first time a swimmer had won both these events at the Olympics, and the first time since 1976 that a swimmer had won two individual events on the same night.[7][8]
Pan Zhanle of China won the men's 100 m freestyle in a world record time of 46.40 seconds, finishing over a second ahead of silver medalist Kyle Chalmers – the longest time between first and second place in that event since 1928.[9] In the mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay, the United States set a new world record of 3:37.43.[10] The US's Bobby Finke set a new world record of 14:30.67 in the men's 1500 metre freestyle,[11] and in the women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay, the United States set another world record with a time of 3:49.63.[12] China became the first country to beat the USA to Olympic gold in the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay since the event was introduced in 1960.[13]
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Media perception of "slow" pool
During the first five days of the swimming events, one world record was broken. This compared with six that had been broken five days into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics swimming events and eight that had been broken in the first five days of the 2016 Rio Olympics.[14] This, along with other slower than expected performances, contributed to media speculation that the Paris 2024 pool was "slow".[14][15][16] Speculation centred around the possible explanation that the shallowness of the pool was to blame, since the pool was 2.15 metres deep—shallower than the pools at both Tokyo and Rio, which were both 3 metres deep.[14] Outlets reported that this shallowness may have caused greater waves in the pool, which could have slowed down swimmers.[14][16][15] Other possible explanations given for the apparent slowness of the swimmers were the pool being a temporary structure, the pool being slightly longer than 50 metres,[quantify] the pool ventilation system not being working effectively on the surface of the water, and athlete psychological challenges at the Games.[15][14]
Schedules
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Pool swimming
For the pool events preliminary rounds ran in the morning, followed by the semifinal and final sessions in the evening.[3] The program extended to nine days for the first time at the Olympics, compared to the eight day schedule at the previous Olympics.[17] Sophie Kaufman from SwimSwam speculated the extra day would likely be used to space out events more to give swimmers more rest.[18]
In February 2024, a change was announced to the original schedule for Days 5 and 6, after lobbying by the French swimming governing body to give Léon Marchand a chance to win both the men's 200 metre butterfly and 200 metre breaststroke events.[19][20] All events remained on the originally planned days, but the event order was modified to create a longer gap between the 200 metre butterfly and 200 metre breaststroke events.[17][21]
| H | Heats | ½ | Semi-finals | F | Final |
M = Morning session, starting at 11:00 local time (09:00 UTC).
E = Evening session, starting at 20:30 local time (18:30 UTC).
E = Evening session, starting at 20:30 local time (18:30 UTC).
Marathon swimming
The women's marathon 10 km took place on 8 August at 07:30, and the men's marathon 10 km took place on 9 August at 07:30.[4]
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Qualification
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Pool swimming
Individual events
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). World Aquatics then considered athletes who had only qualified in a relay event, and then athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[a] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT).[22]
Relay events
Each NOC could enter one team per event, and there were a total of sixteen qualification places available in each event. The first three qualifying places were given to the podium finishers at the 2023 World Championships, and the final thirteen qualifying places were allocated to the fastest performances at the 2023 and 2024 World Championships.[22][23]
Marathon swimming
Each NOC was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes per event. World Aquatics provided a qualification pathway to fulfil their quota of at least 22 competing athletes. Athletes were selected in the following order:[24]
- The three medalists in the 10 km races at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships
- The top thirteen swimmers in the 10 km races at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships
- One representative from each World Aquatics continent (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania)[b]
- One representative from the host nation (France) if not qualified by other means[c]
In addition to the athletes invited to fulfil the quota, any athletes who achieved the Olympic Qualification Time in either the 800 or 1500 metres freestyle were invited to compete.[24]
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Medal summary
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Medal table
* Host nation (France)
Medalists
Pool swimming
a Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.
a Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.
a Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.
Marathon swimming
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Records
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The following world and Olympic records were set during the competition: [28]
World records
Olympic records
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See also
Notes
References
Further reading
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