An Olympic-size swimming pool is a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for

swimming at the Summer Olympics Swimming has been a sport at every modern Summer Olympics. It has been open to women since 1912. At the Olympics, swimming has the second-highest number of medal-contested events after athletics. Summary Long-course swimming Men's events ...

and the

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

events at the

World Aquatics Championships The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. The championships are st ...

. Different size regulations apply for other pool-based events, such as

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

synchronized swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming), also known as artistic swimming, is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by World A ...

, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

. Less onerous breadth and depth regulations exist for lesser swimming competitions, but any "long course" event requires a course length of , as distinct from " short course" which applies to competitions in pools that are in length (or in the United States). If touch pads are used in competition, then the distance is relative to the touch pads at either end of the course, so that the pool itself is generally oversized to allow for the width of the pads. An Olympic-size swimming pool is used as a colloquial unit of

volume Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...

, to make approximate comparisons to similarly sized objects or volumes. It is not a specific definition, as there is no maximum limit on the depth of an Olympic pool. The value has an

order of magnitude In a ratio scale based on powers of ten, the order of magnitude is a measure of the nearness of two figures. Two numbers are "within an order of magnitude" of each other if their ratio is between 1/10 and 10. In other words, the two numbers are ...

of 1 megaliter (ML). Some

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s caution against the

hyperbole Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and cre ...

of describing any relatively large pool as "Olympic-size .

Specifications

World Aquatics specifications for an Olympic-size pool are as follows: There must be two spaces wide outside lanes 1 and 8 (in effect, two empty lanes). The length of must be between the touch pads at the end of each lane, if they are used. If starting blocks are used, then there must be a minimum depth of from between from the end of the pool to at least from the end of the pool. At all other points, the minimum depth is . If the pool is used for Olympic Games or World Championships, then the minimum depth is increased to . Whereas the Water Cube pool used for the 2008 Olympics was deep, the temporary pool used in 2024 was only , which commentators suggested made for slower race times.

Ten-lane pools

At FINA's 2009 Congress, rules were approved for 10-lane courses for competition, as an alternative to the more traditional 8-lane course. This version of the Olympic-sized swimming pool debuted in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Beforehand, the Summer Olympics featured the more traditional 8-lane course with a depth of roughly seven feet, now the minimum depth requirement. Twenty-five world records were broken at this pool, although this is more heavily attributed to the polyurethane "supersuits" worn by many competitors (banned by FINA in 2010). The new Olympic-sized swimming pool was designed to provide advantages to competitors. Increasing the lane count from eight to ten introduces a "buffer lane", helping to absorb waves generated by movements of the swimmers. The increased depth of the pool assists the lane lines in dissipating water churn, thereby creating less hydrodynamic drag.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olympic-Size Swimming Pool Swimming at the Summer Olympics *

Specifications

Ten-lane pools

See also

References