Why pool depth affects swimmers’ speed

Question

I keep seeing people talking about how swimming records aren’t being broken on these Olympics because of the pools being too deep.

In: Physics

Answer 1

The Paris pool is 2.15 meters. It was built when the rule was a minimum of 2 meters. Most pools are 3 meters deep. The deeper the pool, the more/further the water displacement can be distributed. The Paris pool doesn’t have as much room for the displacement and the swimmers are having to work harder to move.