Mondo Knows Facts

Open water swimming joined the Olympics in 2008

The 10 kilometre race was added at Beijing, swum in a rowing lake Ten kilometres is now the standard open water distance at the Games, with men's and women's races. Swimmers round buoys in open water rather than lanes and may draft behind each other. The Beijing race was held at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park. It sits in Mondo's sports collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

World Aquatics

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: swimming, olympics, open-water

Open water swimming joined the Olympics in 2008: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
The 10 kilometre race was added at Beijing, swum in a rowing lake. The figure is taken from World Aquatics, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a sports fact?
Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.