The can maybe intuit being slower, but I doubt they can accurately tell you that it’s because of a different pools depth. There are a lot of other variables that could be the reason.
Do you have links available to any peer-reviewed scientific literature on which you base your theory that – just to make sure we’re on the same page — the theory that it is difficult to the point of impossibility for people to correctly ascertain that the depth and construction of the pool they swim in has no effect on their swimming dynamics, efficiency, and competitive performance?
1) The pool is shallower than normal in this Olympic
2) The pool seems to be slower this Olympic
3) swimmers seem to think it’s because the shallower depth
4) people responsible for building the pool say the effect of depth is negligible
5) there are other things that can be different about the pool except depth because the pools aren’t strictly standardized in their properties
My only claim was that point 3 doesn’t tell me a lot because I find it very plausible that you can’t really detect the reason for the slowness just from swimming. I don’t have positive proof of that though.