If you walk into a football stadium, you expect to see a football field, right? Well, that isn’t the case for visitors of Lucas Oil Stadium, where from June 15th to 23rd, they will be greeted by the sparkling, blue water of a swimming pool and the nostalgic, faint smell of chlorine.
Indianapolis, home to Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indie 500, is now hosting the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials for a record seventh time—1924, 1952(women), 1984, 1996, 2000, and now 2024.
The event is being held in Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. Over the course of ten days, this stadium will welcome about 1,000 Olympic hopefuls, all hoping to earn one of the 52 spots on the US team to represent their country at the Paris Olympics this summer.
Over the years, USA Swimming has seen its biggest competition outgrow conventional pools and even a basketball venue, all of them having too little deck space or seats for the growing number of qualifying athletes and fans. The American solution? Host the event in an NFL stadium. After all, America does have a long history of “thinking big” and staging non-football competitions in football stadiums: from the NHL’s annual Winter Classic to Nebraska playing a women’s volleyball game in front of 92,000 fans.
Putting an Olympic-sized pool into a football stadium was no easy feat, however. First, the coordinators had to get everyone on board with the idea, from the Indiana Sports Corporation to the operators of the stadium. The latter was relatively easy, as the stadium director of Lucas Oil Stadium was Eric Neuburger. He was the son of Dale Neuburger, who was the vice president of World Aquatics for 21 years. “Bring it on,” Eric said when asked his thoughts on the idea. “I live for this stuff. Swimming has been an important part of my life, so I was all for trying to make this happen. […] The emerald-green turf is now diamond-blue water.”
After Mark Dodd, the USA Swimming’s general contractor for the event got the all-clear, construction began. Myrtha Pools, a company specializing in constructing/dismantling large-scale temporary pools, was hired to build the competition pool and two warmup pools. Spear Corp. was also called on to handle the plumbing and filtration. Finally, Mark Dodd (president of Dodd Technologies) managed the decking, scoreboard, signage, and behind-the-scenes work that helped the event go smoothly. Working together, they finished building the largest indoor swimming venue in a mere three weeks.
The last time Indianapolis served as the host of the United States Olympic Trials in 2000, it was held in Indiana University Natatorium and only had 4700 seats. After that, the Trials moved to Long Beach, CA, in 2004 and finally to Omaha, NE, from 2008 to 2021. In 2016, nearly 200,000 fans attended 15 sold-out sessions, filling every seat – all 13,000. But space won’t be a problem this year: Lucas Oil Stadium could seat 30,000 fans with an additional 20 rows of movable seats in front of the midfield curtain.
This ramp-up in size also enhances athletes’ and coaches’ experiences: the place features a 10-lane competition pool and two big warmup/warm-down pools, with ten 50-meter lanes and seven more 25-yard lanes to ensure that crowding won’t happen. The warmup pool is close to the competition pool, only a curtain away. But the best part is that behind the curtain right next to the warmup pools, there is actual deck space that isn’t crowded with spectators but full of whirlpools, hot and cold tubs, and massage tables, all located near each other for convenience. This is a huge improvement from Omaha, where the warmup pools were located at the convention center due to space constraints. But now, it’ll only be one curtain away from the competition pool.
“The thing I’m most looking forward to is actually having space,” said Bob Bowman, best known as the coach of 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. “In Omaha, it got so crowded that I just stopped going into the main pool and watching the races because I couldn’t get over there quick enough to help people warm up and warm down. So, I would just watch it on the big screen in the warmup pool.” Sports Illustrated puts the size to scale the best– “It’s so huge you can’t smell the chlorine.”
Credits to https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/
Sources: https://www.si.com/olympics/katie-ledecky-record-crowd-highlight-historic-day-1-us-olympic-swimming-trials
https://www.poolmagazine.com/pool-news/lucas-oil-stadium-pool-makeover/
https://www.sportico.com/business/sports/2024/lucas-oil-stadium-us-olympic-swimming-trials-1234783111/
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5538777/2024/06/04/lucas-oil-stadium-pool-swimming-olympic-trials/?source=nyt_sports
D’addona, D. (2024, June). City of speed. Swimming World Olympic Trials Special Edition, 65(03), 8–8.
Indianapolis, home to Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indie 500, is now hosting the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials for a record seventh time—1924, 1952(women), 1984, 1996, 2000, and now 2024.
The event is being held in Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. Over the course of ten days, this stadium will welcome about 1,000 Olympic hopefuls, all hoping to earn one of the 52 spots on the US team to represent their country at the Paris Olympics this summer.
Over the years, USA Swimming has seen its biggest competition outgrow conventional pools and even a basketball venue, all of them having too little deck space or seats for the growing number of qualifying athletes and fans. The American solution? Host the event in an NFL stadium. After all, America does have a long history of “thinking big” and staging non-football competitions in football stadiums: from the NHL’s annual Winter Classic to Nebraska playing a women’s volleyball game in front of 92,000 fans.
Putting an Olympic-sized pool into a football stadium was no easy feat, however. First, the coordinators had to get everyone on board with the idea, from the Indiana Sports Corporation to the operators of the stadium. The latter was relatively easy, as the stadium director of Lucas Oil Stadium was Eric Neuburger. He was the son of Dale Neuburger, who was the vice president of World Aquatics for 21 years. “Bring it on,” Eric said when asked his thoughts on the idea. “I live for this stuff. Swimming has been an important part of my life, so I was all for trying to make this happen. […] The emerald-green turf is now diamond-blue water.”
After Mark Dodd, the USA Swimming’s general contractor for the event got the all-clear, construction began. Myrtha Pools, a company specializing in constructing/dismantling large-scale temporary pools, was hired to build the competition pool and two warmup pools. Spear Corp. was also called on to handle the plumbing and filtration. Finally, Mark Dodd (president of Dodd Technologies) managed the decking, scoreboard, signage, and behind-the-scenes work that helped the event go smoothly. Working together, they finished building the largest indoor swimming venue in a mere three weeks.
The last time Indianapolis served as the host of the United States Olympic Trials in 2000, it was held in Indiana University Natatorium and only had 4700 seats. After that, the Trials moved to Long Beach, CA, in 2004 and finally to Omaha, NE, from 2008 to 2021. In 2016, nearly 200,000 fans attended 15 sold-out sessions, filling every seat – all 13,000. But space won’t be a problem this year: Lucas Oil Stadium could seat 30,000 fans with an additional 20 rows of movable seats in front of the midfield curtain.
This ramp-up in size also enhances athletes’ and coaches’ experiences: the place features a 10-lane competition pool and two big warmup/warm-down pools, with ten 50-meter lanes and seven more 25-yard lanes to ensure that crowding won’t happen. The warmup pool is close to the competition pool, only a curtain away. But the best part is that behind the curtain right next to the warmup pools, there is actual deck space that isn’t crowded with spectators but full of whirlpools, hot and cold tubs, and massage tables, all located near each other for convenience. This is a huge improvement from Omaha, where the warmup pools were located at the convention center due to space constraints. But now, it’ll only be one curtain away from the competition pool.
“The thing I’m most looking forward to is actually having space,” said Bob Bowman, best known as the coach of 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. “In Omaha, it got so crowded that I just stopped going into the main pool and watching the races because I couldn’t get over there quick enough to help people warm up and warm down. So, I would just watch it on the big screen in the warmup pool.” Sports Illustrated puts the size to scale the best– “It’s so huge you can’t smell the chlorine.”
Credits to https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/
Sources: https://www.si.com/olympics/katie-ledecky-record-crowd-highlight-historic-day-1-us-olympic-swimming-trials
https://www.poolmagazine.com/pool-news/lucas-oil-stadium-pool-makeover/
https://www.sportico.com/business/sports/2024/lucas-oil-stadium-us-olympic-swimming-trials-1234783111/
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5538777/2024/06/04/lucas-oil-stadium-pool-swimming-olympic-trials/?source=nyt_sports
D’addona, D. (2024, June). City of speed. Swimming World Olympic Trials Special Edition, 65(03), 8–8.