Copenhagen 2017, 23rd LEN European Championships (25m)

“We took over Royal Arena on Thursday November 30^th at 6am, and our first job was to make the markings of where the competition pool was to be built”, said Mads Bang Aaen, the Event Manager for the European Championships. “The transformation from world-class concert arena to world-class swim stadium was finished in less than 10 day, so we worked around the clock to meet this deadline. Around 30 people built the two pools and around 20 people built the pooldeck, that was elevated more than 2 meters above the original floor.”
The arena, which often houses incredible concerts, hosted its first sport event with the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships.

Myrtha Pools built the swim stadium, and the Italian pool experts brought loads of experience and references to Copenhagen. They have built the swim stadiums for several editions of Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships. In Copenhagen two pools have been constructed – a competition pool and a warm-up pool, both of them fitted with removable headwalls and Myrtha Track Start starting blocks.

”The competition pool must be very precise” Mads Bang Aaen said. “It has to be exactly 25 metres long and not a centimetre longer or shorter in order to be used for international competitions. After installing the two pools, a new temporary floor has been built around the pools in a height of over 2 metres from the original floor. Then we filled the pools with water: we needed 2 million litres. Lastly a water test determined if the water quality was high enough for swimming. On Sunday December 10^th the two new pools were ready to welcome the first athletes. This has been an intense and very interesting process but we can’t wait to present a beautiful, state-of-the-art swimming venue for all the spectators, swimmers and viewers around the world.”

Around 700 swimmers from 45 countries competed in 40 events.

“The LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships on Danish soil was the first sport event that takes place in the magnificent Royal Arena, and it was five days of fantastic swimming where the Danes were up against some of the best swimmers in the world, among them the likes of Olympic champions Sarah Sjöström from Sweden, Adam Peaty of Great Britain and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu” Bang Aen added.

– It took 10 days to transform Royal Arena into an international swim stadium.
– 2 temporary pools were built in Royal Arena. A pool for competition and a warm up pool.
– The competition pool measured 25 x 26 meters and contained 1.3 million litres of water. The warm up pool was a little smaller and measured 25 x 16 meters and contained 800,000 litres of water.
– The water temperature was 26 degrees.
– The two pools were built by the Italian company Myrtha Pools who also builds pools for The Olympic Games and World Championships.
– The arena has a capacity of 6,500 spectators at a time.

The LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships 13-17 December in Copenhagen, Denmark
– 700 swimmers from 45 countries participated in Copenhagen.
– The swimmers competed in 40 events.
– On the 5 competition days running from Wednesday December 13 to Sunday December 17 the preliminary races took place in the morning session and semi-finals and finals in the evening session.
– The European Championships was the first sport event taking place in the multi arena, Royal Arena, that opened in February 2017