Is a 'slow' swimming pool impeding world records? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is a 'slow' swimming pool impeding world records?

#341

Post by xhkkffbf » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 3:22 PM UTC

QuarterReptile wrote: post #318

tw04 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the pool was put on top of a rugby pitch, which resulted in the shallower depth because they didn't want to destroy the pitch (a full depth pool would have weighed too much) - unlikely. The pool isn't a permanent structure, it's not going to remain there after the olympics are done. I would be very surprised if they re-use it at all - an "above ground" pool of that size seems like it would be more trouble than…

I can't speak to the French ecosystem, but in the US these pools often (usually?) get resold to swim clubs who find some land and build buildings around them.

Sometimes they just move the pool to a new city and set it up in an arena for another championship.

Re: Is a 'slow' swimming pool impeding world records?

#342

Post by xhkkffbf » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 3:32 PM UTC

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #83

croes wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they all change their behavior because they know the pool is less deep as they are used to. Some kind of placebo effect or fear of coming to close to the ground. Many athletes are superstitious.

There's Olympic gold medals on the line. People are going absolutely as hard as they can. There's no way an Olympic pool for the actual Olympics should be that shallow. If athletes prefer a deep pool, the pool should be deep. Swimming is one of the premier sports at Olympics. It's also a facility that has one of the most reuse if built properly. You don't think a Paris aquatic center wouldn't get tons of reuse in wor…

Experience shows that the pools don't get much reuse. Look at the abandoned venues in Beijing. After all, there's only one world championship each year and dozens of very nice pools already on the planet.

BTW, it's not clear the decision was purely monetary. Raising the water level means ruining the view of the closest seats. The spectators would be that much further away.

Re: Is a 'slow' swimming pool impeding world records?

#343

Post by MisterBastahrd » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 7:02 PM UTC

jacobgkau wrote: post #322

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not be intentionally obtuse.

I don't think it's obtuse when you're saying they should be required to wear the same thing while training. If you want to regulate what they wear for the competition itself, fine. But I don't see how regulating what they wear while training is different than regulating what exercises they do while training, what their diet is while training, etc.

I didn't say anything about training, because training has nothing to directly do with competing.

I was talking about competing. I don't care how they train. The purpose of competing in the event is to win, and in those circumstances, gear should be normalized as much as possible. There are always going to be differences in size, strength, etc. The purpose of the competition is to find the best in the world, and gear prevents at the competition that if some teams have items that give them a huge advantage over others.

Re: Is a 'slow' swimming pool impeding world records?

#344

Post by croes » Sun, Aug 04, 2024, 11:26 PM UTC

samldev wrote: post #5

I was a college swimmer, qualified for Olympic Trials in 2012 and 2016. There are absolutely slow and fast pools. It basically comes down to two things: 1. The depth - which is only 7ft in Paris, unusually shallow for a competition pool. 2. The sides. Does the water spill over the sides into the gutters, or smash into a wall and bounce back, creating more chop. A trained eye can see all the swimmers in Paris struggli…

So now that two swimming worlds records have fallen, we can't blame the pools anymore, can we?