You would be surprised at how deep Olympic pools actually are. Deepness must be at least two metres, as mandated by the International Olympic Committee. This is done to prevent waves from forming in a shallow pool, which could be dangerous for swimmers.
If you’ve ever gone swimming in the ocean, you know that swimming in turbulent waters is significantly more challenging. It was necessary for Olympic pools to be deep in order to protect swimmers from harm and boost their abilities.
Head coach of the Cal women’s swimming team and former Olympic swim coach Teri McKeever claims the following “A standard depth for a fast pool is three metres. The deeper the pool, the less the splash, turbulence, and other disturbances will be amplified as they sink to the bottom and cannot reverberate back up to the swimmers.”
In Tokyo, How Deep is the Diving Pool for the Olympics?
The platform is 10 metres (32.8 feet) in height, thus diving pools need to be at least 5 metres (16.4 feet) in depth for safety.
The Tokyo Aquatics Center, which also hosts swimming events, features a 50-meter pool and a diving pool that is five metres deep for the Olympic Diving Competition.
Why do Scuba Divers Need to Shower After Each Dive?
Divers claim that rinsing off helps them avoid muscle cramps as they transition from the warmer water of the pool to the colder air of the deck.
How is a Dive at the Olympics Scored?
At the individual level of diving competition, there are seven judges (11 in synchronised events). Everyone rates the dives on a scale from 0 to 10. (in half-point increments). The judges can only go by what they see in the moment, so don’t expect any video replays.
We eliminate the top and bottom scores. Lastly, the difficulty of the dive is multiplied by the sum of the other three ratings. Somersaults with twists in the tuck position, such as a reverse two-and-a-half, are worth 2.7.
Each male competitor in an individual event will complete six dives, while female competitors will complete five. Divers must inform judges in advance of the dives and the order in which they will be performed.
Different types of dives, including forward (where they start with their backs to the water and rotate forward) and reverse (where they start with their fronts to the water and rotate backward), must be performed as well (where they face the water and then rotate backward).
When Diving, Why do Some Scores Get Erased?
The highest and lowest scores are crossed out since they will not be factored into the final score for that dive.
