Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Swimming at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Pictogram for swimming at the 2008 Games
Venue	Beijing National Aquatics Centre (pool) Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park (open water)
Dates	9–17 August 2008 (pool) 20–21 August 2008 (open water)
Competitors	1,026 from 162 nations
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The swimming competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place from 9 to 17 August 2008 at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre. The newly introduced open water marathon events (10 km) were held on 20 and 21 August 2008 at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Swimming featured 34 events (17 male, 17 female), including two 10 km open-water marathons. The remaining 32 were contested in a 50 m long course pool within the Olympic Park.

United States claimed a total of 31 medals (12 golds, 9 silver, and 10 bronze) in the leaderboard to maintain its standings as the most successful nation in swimming. A stellar performance in the pool also made an Olympic history for Michael Phelps, who captured eight gold medals to break Mark Spitz's 1972 record, a total of seven, at a single Games. Despite the male swimmers failing to attain a single gold in swimming, Australia managed to repeat a second-place effort on its third consecutive Olympics with 20 medals (six golds, six silver, and eight bronze). Meanwhile, Great Britain finished third with a total of six medals by the benefit of a sterling long-distance freestyle double from Rebecca Adlington.

A total of 25 world records and 65 Olympic records were set during the competition.

All the swimming, synchronized swimming, and diving events of the 2008 Olympics were held at the Beijing National Aquatics Center (better known as the "Water Cube"), which was claimed to be built to increase the speed of the swimmers. The main pool is about 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, 3 feet (0.91 m) deeper than any other Olympic pool. The lane lines, nicknamed "wave eaters", buffer the waves produced by swimmers while they stroke. The technological advances of the pool were enhanced by several advantages inherent to an indoor swimming venue, namely: temperature, humidity and lighting control. Even the wide decks were built to help give the swimmers a sense of space.