You would be surprised at how deep Olympic pools actually are. When it comes to Olympic standards, two metres is the bare minimum. In a shallow pool, waves could pose a danger to swimmers, so this is done to prevent that.
If you’ve ever gone ocean swimming, you know that swimming in rough waters is much more challenging.
How Deep is The Olympic Swimming Pool in Tokyo
The Olympic competitions necessitated the use of deep pools to protect the swimmers and to boost their abilities. As Teri McKeever, former swim coach at the 2012 London Olympics and current head coach of the University of California women’s swimming team, has stated.
“The depth of a fast pool should be at least three metres. The deeper the pool, the better, as any splashes or turbulence have more time to settle to the bottom and avoid being reflected back up at the swimmers.”
A deep pool is necessary because the athletes will be jumping from great heights. The International Swimming Federation (FINA) suggests a pool depth of 5 metres (16.5 ft) for platform dives at 10 metres. Reduced to a bare minimum of 4.5 metres (16 ft).
The pool depth needs to be at least 3.50 metres to accommodate the 3 metre springboard diving competitions. However, the Olympic pool depth must be at least 5 metres in order to accommodate both springboard and platform diving. The average depth of a swimming pool is about 10 feet.
What Do The Rules Say About The Size of an Olympic Pool?
Olympic swimming pools are required to be a uniform length of 50 metres. When all timing equipment is in place, the pool must be exactly 50,000 metres in length (rule FR 2.1.1). That’s about the length of a football field.
While competitions held under FINA’s auspices may use pools of varying widths, the Olympic pool width requirement is 25.00 metres, which equates to 10 lanes measuring 2.5 metres in width each.
Every Olympic Games since the 1992 Games in Barcelona have used a 10-lane pool, despite the fact that only 8 swimmers compete in each event.
Conclusion
Divers need a lot of space in the water so they don’t hurt themselves when they land. Especially since they’re jumping from a height of about 32 feet (which is longer than most school buses, which are typically between 20 and 45 feet in length).
While pools deeper than 10 metres are permitted, this depth is mandated for diving and springboard diving competitions. Thanks for reading our article How Deep is an Olympic Pool in Tokyo.
