Swimming Facilities

[Water Pony]

ponyboy wrote:
WP, is a 50m pool the standard, olympic sized pool? Is this what you've been asking for?


Ponyboy,

50 meters (approx. 55 yards) long is the standard Olympic size pool, which is also called Long Course. Combined with a width of 25 yards, which is the collegiate and high school competitive 'short' course, you would have the flexibility of training and competing at both distances.

When recruiting and training you need both. Our outdoor 'long' course' A. R. Barr (former Swim Coach when I swam and a real gentleman, btw) pool is a great addition while giving us great flexibility. But it can't be used for collegiate meets and winter training.

A key question is whether you have a diving area or separate well, which is what we have outdoors. If we were to build in a new area, say near Moody, we would build a long course pool and a separate diving well. However, it appears the preferred site will be the current location of Perkins Natatorium.

To fit into that footprint and not negatively impact visually the ajoining dorms or surrounding campus architecture, the proposed plan suggests a 50 meter length with the diving area in the same pool, which would reduce the number of times you could train and compete length (50M) wise indoors.

In a perfect world, this would be a concession, but acceptable to get a new aquatic center in that location, while integrating the facility with outdoor pool.

I am sure this is TMI for most, but the possibility of getting the funding ($16M) and commitment has me excited for the future of one of our signature non-revenue sports.

Thanks for the interest.