How Much Water is in the Beijing Olympic Swimming Pool?

I thought about this the other day as I watched the Olympics. According to the La Federatio Internationale de Natation (FINA) the world governing body of swimming, an Olympic Pool must be 25m wide with a depth of 2.0m (min) at all parts of the course and must be 50m in length - between touch panels if they are used. The 25m width is to allow for 8 lanes to be 2.5m wide minimum with 2 spaces of 2.5m wide outside lane 1 and 8.

The minimum volume is therefore 2.5m litres of water, the pool in Beijing is 3m deep, and therefore has a volume of 3.75m litres.

There was no real reasoning behind it other than pools take alot of water, obviously the water is changed on a very very occassional basis, but in perspective. Even a relatively small 3m x 2m x 2m pool, could require 12 000 litres of water, enough for 300 showers, or enough to drink for 6000 days, rainwater harvested pools are of course more environmentally friendly, and that would be a great idea for those that don't already make use of that resource.

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