No world records broken yet but swimmers, coaches say pool not to blame

PARIS : World records have yet to tumble in the Olympic pool at La Defense Arena in Paris but swimmers and coaches agree that the temporary structure built inside the indoor stadium originally used for concerts and rugby is not at fault.

Paris 2024 organisers were wary of constructing a new venue which could have proven to be a white elephant after the Games, leading to the transformation of the arena that allows 15,000 fans to soak in the action.

While eight world records were broken in Rio 2016 and six were set in Tokyo in 2021, they remain a distant dream with a third of the competition wrapped up in Paris even though Olympic records have fallen.

The women's 400 metres freestyle "Race of the Century" did not live up to the hype while even the closely-contested 100m breaststroke final - which had the top three separated by only 0.02 seconds - was still two seconds off world record pace.

"Most of the time the Olympics isn't particularly the best playground for the best swimming in the world that you normally always see at world championships and local meets," said Elijah Winnington, who took silver in the 400m freestyle.

"There's no pressure quite like the Olympics, but also the environment just doesn't really permit for it. You're walking way more in the (athletes) village, the food's not what you are normally used to and the bus rides are longer."

French coach Denis Auguin said three world championships between the Tokyo and Paris Games, among other meets, made for a punishing schedule that did not give swimmers ideal preparation.

"We had only three years to prepare for these Olympics but we had five years to prepare for Tokyo," he said.

"We had many high level competitions between Tokyo and now ... (in the) long course and