Three years ago, Shanna Ferguson stood on the pool deck in Omaha, Nebraska, excitedly watching more than 12,000 swimmers at the U.S. Olympic Trials. But she dared to dream bigger.
Like, much bigger.
“What would this look like in a football stadium?” Ferguson asked loudly.
Three years later, after countless meetings about electrical work, plumbing and drainage, the wonder gave way to reality. Ferguson, USA Swimming’s chief commercial officer, and her team of suppliers are about to kick off the most important quadrennial swim meet on American soil, and they expect to have the largest turnout ever for a swim meet.
The upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis from June 15-23, marking the first time an Olympic qualifying event will be held in a football stadium. Event organizers hope to have close to 30,000 spectators on the first night of the final, which would break the previous world record.
To put it mildly, it will be a spectacle.
“This is the first of its kind in the world,” said Mark Dodd, president of Dodd Technologies, which is actually USA Swimming’s general contractor for the event. “A lot of people are going to come and see what we build. We’re going to be role models.
Ferguson added: “We need to make sure we provide these athletes with an amazing experience, which for many of them will be the pinnacle of their careers. We have a responsibility to create a really cool environment for them.
Not surprisingly, it all starts with the pool itself, which was built over the past three weeks, with construction starting on May 12 and ending this week. Nearly 2 million gallons of water are brought in from the nearby White River; it is then stored in tanks, allowing it to be continuously circulated, cleaned and chlorinated, and then filtered in and out of the three pools that have been built.
“When you see this on TV, it looks like an underground swimming pool, like a swimming pool is on the floor,” Ferguson said. “But we’re building an above-ground pool on concrete and building a deck around it. The pool with the deck will actually end up occupying the first 10 rows of seats.
Elevating the pool deck and fan-perceived ground level creates sufficient depth for the three required pools. One is a competition pool 50 meters long and three meters deep – the standard depth for elite swimming – where nine nights of training will be focused on all eyes; the other two are warm-up pools, separated from the competition pool by curtains at the 50-yard line. separated.
Myrtha Pools, a company that specializes in building and dismantling large temporary swimming pools, built the competition pool and two warm-up pools. Spear Corp., located near Rochdale, Indiana, handled all piping, pumping and filtration systems. Dodd’s team specializes in decks, scoreboards, signs and all the other gear that makes the event run smoothly.
“Really, our biggest challenge was trying to figure out what is traditionally a close-up spectator sport in a small swimming pool and scale it so that it works in a space of this size,” Dodd said.
In short, USA Swimming is working hard to meet the growing demand. With almost every Olympic cycle, the event continues to evolve, even beyond the size of its venues. The last time tryouts were held in Indianapolis in 2000 was at the 4,700-seat Indiana University Pool. In 2004, tryouts were held in Long Beach, California, then moved to a basketball court in downtown Omaha, Nebraska from 2008 to 2021. In 2016, nearly 200,000 fans attended 15 sold-out shows. The venue can accommodate approximately 13,000 people for swimming competitions.
The main pool at Lucas Oil Stadium is under construction, with temporary seating to the left and a warm-up pool structure to the rear. (Photo courtesy of USA Swimming)
Lucas Oil Stadium seats far more than that. It will have a capacity of approximately 30,000 in its swimming configuration, with regular stadium seating facing the competition pool and approximately 20 rows of removable seats that will be located in front of the midfield curtain to form a fully enclosed oval-shaped fan zone. Organizers plan theme nights (including Father’s Day and Juneteenth celebrations during the event). They’ve also partnered with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and the WNBA’s Fever to help attract new fans who may not know much about swimming.
Dowd said the sightlines from the more than 25,000 spectator seats are pretty good, although there will certainly be seats away from the water.
“I didn’t necessarily know it was going to be weird, but it would be different,” said University of Virginia coach Todd DeSorbo, who will serve as head coach of the U.S. women’s team in Paris. “The more people the better. I think the kids feed off the energy of the crowd.
Event organizers say those nights – where fans will see the top two finishers earn their tickets to Paris – will be unforgettable. When athletes are announced and walk onto the pool deck before each final, there will be a 50-foot-tall video board behind them. Ferguson compared it to “Monday Night Football” player introductions; Dodd said the lighting and production levels will be similar to WWE. There will also be a center-hung scoreboard (similar to a basketball court), as scoring and timing need to be concentrated above the pool, rather than where the video boards are located around the perimeter of the football field.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of the football field is the setup of the warm-up pool. In Omaha, due to limited space within the venue, the warm-up pool is located in the convention center. In Indianapolis, they’ll be just one step away from the playing pool.
“What I’m looking forward to most is actually having space,” said University of Texas head coach Bob Bowman, who coached Michael Phelps throughout his career and will once again lead a group of Olympians. Trials. “In Omaha, it was so crowded that I stopped going into the main pool to watch the games because I couldn’t get there fast enough to help people warm up and cool down. So, I would just watch on the big screen in the warm-up pool.
“It’s going to be a great thing for the participants.”
In what Ferguson calls the backstage experience for athletes, there will be quiet areas, massages, therapy dogs, nutritional assistance, mental health experts and even a video game room.
“A lot of it was nerves and hopes and dreams,” Ferguson said. “We have to make sure that even in a big stadium, we still give players and coaches an intimate feeling where they can be quiet, alone and focused so it’s not just big lights, Hollywood and excitement.”
In short, it’s not just about building a pool in a football stadium and figuring out where and how to drain it. This is a new use of the site that must provide multiple services to multiple stakeholders simultaneously.
One week later, it will be put to the ultimate test – just like the best of America’s best swimmers.
Artist’s rendering of the finished product, complete with fan. Lucas Oil Stadium will be the first football stadium to host the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials. (Courtesy of USA Swimming)
(Above: Dan Goldfarb / Competitor; Photo: Courtesy of USA Swimming, Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty)
