How USA Swimming will put a pool in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Olympic Trials

INDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials are exactly one year away from coming to Indianapolis. For the first time, the trials will take place inside of a NFL stadium.

The U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials will run from June 15-23, 2024, at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis. The nine-day event will generate over $100 million of economic impact, Indiana Sports Corporation President Patrick Talty said.

“This event is truly massive,” Talty said at a press conference Thursday. “It’s going to span across all of our community, and it’s going to have an impact we have not seen very often.”

But first, USA Swimming and Indiana Sports Corp will have to construct three pools on Lucas Oil Stadium’s field. The USA Swimming staff have experience building pools from the ground up, as the last four Olympic Trials were held in Omaha, Nebraska, at the CHI Health Center — a basketball arena.

The decision to move the trials from Omaha to Indianapolis was rooted in accessibility to the event — the CHI Health Center could hold around 14,000 fans, while Lucas Oil Stadium will seat 30,000 after the construction of the pools.

“The good news is we have experience building temporary pools for the Olympic trials,” Shana Ferguson, chief commercial officer of USA Swimming, said. “We’ve done it already five times, so the last five Olympic Trials were in temporary pools. The reason for that is there’s simply no natatorium in the United States that is big enough to host a meet of this magnitude.”

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But this endeavor won’t be cheap. Ferguson said the installation of three three-meter deep pools at the stadium will have a hefty cost. The pools and pool decks will be built on top of the existing field, as well, meaning some seats will need to be taken out to accommodate them.

“It’s certainly in the seven figures, as you could imagine,” Ferguson said. “It costs a lot to do this right, from a technically-sound build perspective, to a staffing perspective.”

USA Swimming and the Indiana Sports Corp will split the cost of the pool installation and teardown.

Construction will start at Lucas Oil Stadium in mid-May 2024, Ferguson said. After the pools and pool decks are set up, fire trucks will help to put in more than 860,000 gallons of water across the three pools.

Lucas Oil Stadium will be split into two halves, with a heavy tarp coming down around the 50-yard line to separate the main competition pool and the warmup-lanes. The main 50-meter competition pool will be on the south side of the stadium, with 10 lanes, and there will be stadium seating around the pool. The other two warmup pools, at 25 and 50 meters, respectively, will be on the north side of the stadium.

Ferguson said USA Swimming will also host a test swim meet to make sure everything is correct before the official Olympic Trials in June.

“We have to test it first,” Ferguson said. “We have to make sure that the timing system is right, that the pool temperature is correct, that there’s no current in the pool — it’s important to recognize that, because we don’t want any aid to the athletes. So, we’ll stage a test event, certainly, and then naturally after that we’ll make some tweaks.”

Ferguson said teardown is simple following the event. The pools will take a couple days to drain, but the structures will be out within a week following the end of the trials. USA Swimming will be draining the chemically-treated water into multiple different locations around Indianapolis; Ferguson did not specify where those places are.

USA Swimming will also host multiple downtown events during the trials. The Indiana Convention Center, which is across the street from Lucas Oil Stadium, will turn into a free Aqua Zone fan fest.

The central canal walk will have a Parisian theme for all nine nights of the trials, and there will be a U.S.A. themed show each night on Monument Circle.

“We couldn’t be more excited to once again put Indianapolis and Indiana on the world’s stage,” Talty said. “This is truly a once in a lifetime moment to see what Indy does best.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 2024 Olympic trials: How USA Swimming will put a pool in Lucas Oil Stadium