Sports

Can Olympic swimmers blame the pool for fewer records this year?

In the last week, we've seen swimmers diving headfirst into the 2024 Paris Olympics pool, limbs gracefully slicing through the water. And yet, world and Olympic records weren't broken at quite the rate some expected, leading many on social media to speculate: Was the pool the culprit? With the help of NPR correspondents Bill Chappell and Brian Mann, we investigate.

Read Bill Chappell's full story about this here.

Want us to cover the science behind more Olympic sports? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!

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Billy Bean, second openly gay ex-MLB player, dies at 60

Bean, who became the second former Major League Baseball player to come out as gay in 1999 before becoming the sport’s senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, has died. He was 60.