How many gallons are in an Olympic swimming pool? A look at the volume

As Opening Ceremonies for the 2024 Paris Olympics approach, athletes are frustrated at the high amounts of fecal bacteria plaguing the River Seine, where marathoners and triathletes will swim.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923, but Olympic organizers invested $1.5 billion to bring the water to safer standards for the 2024 Paris Games. It hasn’t come without backlash – in June, Parisians threatened to defecate in the Seine to protest the large sums France committed to river clean-up instead of social causes.

Fortunately, it’s not the only Olympic swimming venue at the 2024 Paris Games.

How many gallons are in an Olympic swimming pool?

There’s no exact requirement, but Olympic swimming pools generally have 660,000 gallons of water. Residential pools, for comparison, typically only contain 15,000 to 48,000 gallons.

How do we figure 660,000? We did a little bit of math. To find the volume of a rectangle prism, you need to multiply the length by the width by the height.

According to the competitive water sport governing body World Aquatics, formerly the Fédération Internationale de Natation, Olympic swimming pools must be 50 meters long and at least 2 meters deep. It recommends pools for artistic swimming be an even deeper 3 meters . Using the requirement for lane dimensions, we found that Olympic pools are typically 25 meters wide .

Converting these numbers from meters to feet, we rounded and multiplied to get 88,261.92 cubic feet. Converted to liquid gallons, it equals 660,245, or a similar figure, depending on how you round.

When does swimming start at the Olympics?

You can catch the first Olympic swimming events on July 27. Women’s races will be from 5 a.m. to 3:37 p.m. and men’s races will be from 5 a.m. to 3:50 p.m. ET. Check out our guide to watching the Olympics and the full Paris 2024 schedule here.

Most swimming events will be in La Défense Arena's 660,000-gallon Olympic swimming pool, according to NBC Olympics. The Seine will host triathlon and marathon swimming races.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How many gallons are in an Olympic swimming pool? A look at the volume