Pool swimming featured a total of 35 events (17 each for men and women and one mixed event). All pool events were contested in a long course (50 metres long) pool at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool arena for the events.[2]
The following events were contested for both men and women (distances are in meters):[3]
France’s Léon Marchand won all four individual events he entered at the 2024 Games: the 200 breaststroke, the 200 butterfly, and the 200 and 400 individual medleys. Eric Goodman from NBC called Marchand's 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly double win "unprecedented", as both events were on the same night.[6] It was the first time a swimmer had won both these events at the Olympics, and the first time since 1976 that a swimmer had won two individual events on the same night.[7][8]
During the first five days of the swimming events, one world record was broken. This compared with six that had been broken five days into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics swimming events and eight that had been broken in the first five days of the 2016 Rio Olympics.[14] This, along with other slower than expected performances, contributed to media speculation that the Paris 2024 pool was "slow".[14][15][16] Speculation centred around the possible explanation that the shallowness of the pool was to blame, since the pool was 2.15 metres deep—shallower than the pools at both Tokyo and Rio, which were both 3 metres deep.[14] Outlets reported that this shallowness may have caused greater waves in the pool, which could have slowed down swimmers.[14][16][15] Other possible explanations given for the apparent slowness of the swimmers were the pool being a temporary structure, the pool being slightly longer than 50 metres,[quantify] the pool ventilation system not being working effectively on the surface of the water, and athlete psychological challenges at the Games.[15][14]
Schedules
Pool swimming
Paris La Défense Arena after it was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events
For the pool events preliminary rounds ran in the morning, followed by the semifinal and final sessions in the evening.[3] The program extended to nine days for the first time at the Olympics, compared to the eight day schedule at the previous Olympics.[17] Sophie Kaufman from SwimSwam speculated the extra day would likely be used to space out events more to give swimmers more rest.[18]
In February 2024, a change was announced to the original schedule for Days 5 and 6, after lobbying by the French swimming governing body to give Léon Marchand a chance to win both the men's 200 metre butterfly and 200 metre breaststroke events.[19][20] All events remained on the originally planned days, but the event order was modified to create a longer gap between the 200 metre butterfly and 200 metre breaststroke events.[17][21]
Legend
H
Heats
½
Semi-finals
F
Final
M = Morning session, starting at 11:00 local time (09:00 UTC). E = Evening session, starting at 20:30 local time (18:30 UTC).
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). World Aquatics then considered athletes who had only qualified in a relay event, and then athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[a] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT).[22]
Relay events
Each NOC could enter one team per event, and there were a total of sixteen qualification places available in each event. The first three qualifying places were given to the podium finishers at the 2023 World Championships, and the final thirteen qualifying places were allocated to the fastest performances at the 2023 and 2024 World Championships.[22][23]
Marathon swimming
Each NOC was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes per event. World Aquatics provided a qualification pathway to fulfil their quota of at least 22 competing athletes. Athletes were selected in the following order:[24]
One representative from each World Aquatics continent (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania)[b]
One representative from the host nation (France) if not qualified by other means[c]
In addition to the athletes invited to fulfil the quota, any athletes who achieved the Olympic Qualification Time in either the 800 or 1500 metres freestyle were invited to compete.[24]
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