The Paris 1900 events occurred in the Seine River, and at St. Louis four years later they were held in a lake. The first Olympic pool was built in the White City Stadium in London (inside the running track) for the 1908 Games. It's interesting to note that it was not what we now know as an "Olympic-sized" pool of 50 meters, but instead double the current length.

The 1912 Stockholm Games saw the creation of a "swimming stadium" (right), carved into the bay of Djurgårdsbrunnsviken next to the Stockholm Rowing Club's boathouse. But the structure was short-lived. "A short time after the last stroke of the swimmers and the final plunge of the divers," notes the Official Report, "this Swimming Stadium fell before the axes of the carpenters and was levelled to the ground, but, although it had been built for the moment only, it has left pleasant, happy memories in the hearts of all Swedish friends of the art of swimming."

Happy memories were all friends of sport had as the 1916 Games were wiped out due to the World War. In 1924 at Paris, the swimming events were held in a now-standard 50 meter pool with marked lanes -- Johnny Weissmuller became the first to swim 100 meters in less than a minute there. The organizers of the Berlin Games of 1936 erected a gleaming limestone palace, the most sophisticated swimming venue the modern Olympics had yet seen. The concrete diving platform, according to the organizers, was "an elegant framework... of dazzling whiteness."

The 1948 London Games have the distinction of having held the first truly indoor Olympic swimming events. The meet was held at the Empire Pool (now known as Wembley Arena). There was contention before the Games, as the Official Report notes, because "It was found impracticable to fly flags from poles indoors." The solution was to hang flags of competing nations banner-wise from the ceiling. The report goes on to note, "The general effect was that of a series of medieval manorial halls."

Swimming came back outside during Helsinki 1952, in a rock-crafted stadium built into a wooded area near the city. Melbourne's pool in 1956 was the first Olympic aquatics hall outfitted for electric timing, and Rome's 1960 venue featured glass panels in the pool that enabled an underwater gallery. And the shape of Tokyo's National Gymnasium (left), which hosted the 1964 meet, was a space-age sign of things to come designed by architect Kenzo Tange.

Munich's Schwimmhalle in 1972 was designed to be extra-bright to meet the then-burgeoning standards of color television, all the better to beam Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance to the world. Four years later, the head of FINA, swimming's world body, proclaimed in January, ""Short of a miracle, the Olympic swimming, diving, and water polo competitions cannot be held in Montreal during the 1976 Games!" Somewhat miraculously, Montreal's swimming venue was blueprinted, built, tested and used as an Olympic pool all within that calendar year.

In 1984, only two new venues were built for the Olympics' second trip to Los Angeles -- the pool and the velodrome. The Swim Stadium that had been built for the 1932 Games was relegated to duty as a storage center for track and field support staff. The events themselves were held that year in a sparkling new aquatic center on the campus of the University of Southern California, underwritten by and named after McDonald's -- a sign of the overwhelming commercialism that began to mark the Games in the 1980's.

Seoul's Chamshil Indoor Olympic Swimming Pool, host of the 1988 meet, featured technology that eliminated wavelets from the water surface, helping result in 11 world and 34 Olympic records. It was also the first fully computerized timing system, which allowed times to appear on the venue's giant scoreboards the instant that swimmers made contact with the sensor-activated touchpad in each lane.

The table-flat, high-elevation venue on the mountain of Montjuic (right) offered athletes and spectators at the 1992 Barcelona Games a breathtaking view of the city. The next venue, the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, featured a gently sloping roof and was built at an expense of $25 million. It was the first Olympic venue that housed all four water-related disciplines: swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming.

The Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, built for the 2000 Games, was the first Olympic venue completed for those Games in 1994, and was seen by many Australians as the linchpin of the city's bid. Then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch declared, "This is the best swimming pool I have seen in my life." It's still a popular destination, welcoming over 100,000 visitors a month in the eight years since its use as an Olympic venue, owing to the careful post-games forethought that went into its initial design -- it's split into competition and leisure swimming halls.

The main pool of the Olympic Aquatic Centre in Athens lost its planned roof due to the sluggish construction schedule that plagued the preparations to the 2004 Games. It was thought that the roof would be necessary to shield swimmers and fans from the oppressive heat and humidity of a Greek summer, but fears were unfounded. The meet came off without a hitch, and records fell each day of the Games' first week.

Beijing's WaterCube, roof firmly attached, will also surely see its share of incredible performances. The most advanced aquatics venue in the history of the Olympic Games will not only look pretty at night, it will protect its inhabitants from the city's smog and heat... with the power of foam.

Watercube photo © Icon Sports Media; others from Official Reports