Long Beach 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials
The City of Long Beach, CA, has hosted – July 7th to July 14th – the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials pools , one of the most important sporting events in the U.S.A., during which athletes compete for the right to represent Team USA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
For the event it has been constructed a totally new temporary facility, the “Charter All Digital Aquatic Center”, located in the parking lot adjacent to the Long Beach Arena.
For the first time in U. S. Olympic Team Trials - Swimming history, swimmers have trained and competed for Olympics top positions in two above-ground temporary pools, built by Myrtha Pools, thanks to their exclusive Myrtha Technology.
Great was the success of Myrtha Pools installation: athletes, coaches and also the local community are enthusiastic about the pool, that they consider as a new trend in swimming. 'Fast pool' was in fact the more common definition used to describe the competition pool. The construction of the “Charter All Digital Aquatic Center” took less than a month. Bleachers surround the pool with seating for 10,000 spectators and the two pools – one for competition and the other one for training sessions – measure 50 meters long by 25 yds wide and 2 meters deep. The competition pool has 8 – 50m long lanes and 2.5 meters wide, according to FINA-regulations. The warm-up pool has the same set-up, but with 3 additional– 25m long lanes placed horizontally next to the other 8 lanes, making an “L” shaped pool.
Now that the competitions are over, the pools will be disassembled and shipped to their permanent destinations: the competition swimming pool will be installed in the city of Yucaipa, in the Southern part of California while the warm-up pool will be installed in the Berkeley Aquatic Club in New Jersey. Myrtha Pools usually build permanent facilities, although in some cases Myrtha Technology has been chosen for the construction of above-ground temporary competition swimming pools, because of its precision and flexibility. It allows the installation of a complete competition pool, responding to FINA strict norms and regulations, in only one week.
Moreover it allows the maximum athletes’ speed, thanks to its special overflow gutter shape, which is very capacious and suitable to absorb the wave created by the swimmers without any water return.
For all these reasons, for the sturdiness and quality of its materials and for its precise technology, Myrtha Pools have been chosen to accomplish the temporary swimming pool for the World Swimming Championships that will take place in Indianapolis, in “Conseco Fieldhouse” next October 2004, and for the 2005 FINA World Swimming Championships, in Montreal.
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