Swimming at the 2024 Paris Olympics delivered no shortage of nail-biting action, memorable performances and thrilling finishes across the entirety of the nine-day meet. However, the competition was notably light on one thing: world records.

La Defense Arena was treated to just four such record-setting times, the fewest at an Olympics since Atlanta 1996. Many have pointed the finger at the Paris pool itself as the culprit.

At 2.15m (7.05 ft) deep, the temporary swimming pool built inside the Parisian rugby ground just barely cleared World Aquatics’ two-meter minimum requirement for a championship swimming pool. It was nearly three feet shallower than pools at recent Olympics.

Experts have pointed out that shallow water can result in higher turbulence for the swimmers, which negatively affects speed.

So, did the pool’s lack of depth hamper the athletes’ abilities to produce historically fast swims? Not if you ask them.

“I think it’s totally a myth,” American Regan Smith, who won five medals in the Paris pool, told NBCOlympics.com in an exclusive interview. “I think at first people were very aware of (the lack of world records)… I remember in the women’s 400 IM and 400 free, they were a couple of seconds off the world record. And I think some people were just surprised because, like, these women are freaking incredible, and I think we all knew that they had the ability to do that. 

“So, I think that caused some chatter, like, 'Oh, is it the pool that’s doing this?' But I think as the meet went on, people got used to it, and then I think they got more comfortable with it, and then we started seeing some really fast swims,” Smith said.

Smith helped clock the fourth and final world record on the meet’s final day, swimming the leadoff leg of the United States’ women’s 4x100m medley relay team, which also included Lilly King, Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh, who offered her own thoughts on the shortage of world-record times.

“I think much of what the Olympics is, and what it represents, makes any pool that it’s at feel kind of slow. Because you have so much pressure on yourself that it is hard at your 100% best,” Walsh said.

However, the dimensions of the La Defense Arena pool nearly harmed Walsh in a much more literal way. On her first day training in the competition pool, Walsh stepped onto the starting block of Lane 0, the lane adjacent to the pool’s far side wall which is not used during races.

Unbeknownst to her at the time, that lane contained a ledge raised off the bottom of the pool, which she nearly collided with upon diving into the water.

“I almost broke my face. I literally immediately came up and was like, ‘I almost hit the bottom of the pool!’”

Fortunately for Walsh and Team USA, the Olympic debutante didn’t have to learn that fact the hard way.