We entered the 100 day countdown to the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which means that the U.S. Trials are well within our sights. The highly competitive event takes place from June 26th through July 3rd at the Century Link Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
For those watching Trials from home, we reported last month how NBC’s broadcast coverage will hit the 76 hour mark across all sports, an amount which surpasses that of the 67.5 number of hours broadcast ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.
But, for those lucky enough to be present in Omaha to watch the Trials live and in person, you may notice some subtle upgrades to the competition and warm up pools used in previous editions of the main event.
As was the case with the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Trials, both the competition and warm up pools will be supplied and assembled by Myrtha Pools, slated to travel in a half-dozen containers from Castiglione, Italy, to Genoa, Italy, to New York before finally arriving in Omaha on or about May 22nd or May 23rd.
But upon arrival, says CEO of the U.S. Olympic Trials Harold Cliff, organizers are “hoping for a less stressful build than in the past.”
To help accomplish this, Myrtha will no longer use the precase concrete blocks that formerly were used as the base under the pool both in 2008 and 2012. This time around, a prefabricated steel foundation with all holes pre-drilled at the factory will be shipped to Omaha. This change of process will allow for easier piecing together of the base and walls on-site at the CenturyLink Center.
Another change is that both pools will now be constructed with a ‘movable head wall’, which can be adjusted even after the structure is filled with the roughly 1 million gallons of water needed. The Trials marks the first time this innovation will be utilized within the United States, according to Myrtha Pools’ John Ireland.
The 2016 edition of the Trials pool will also stand about a meter wider than the 2008 and 2012 editions, allowing for lane ropes to be positioned on the outside of lane 0 and lane 9. In the Trials leading up to both Beijing and London, these outside lanes were simply bordered by the walls.
Of this addition of one meter, Cliff said, “It’s a very small point, but why not do it right? It makes the water a little calmer, but more importantly it makes it so that if you’re in those lanes you know where the ropes are.”
All told, both the 2008 and 2012 build-outs of the pools took approximately 15 to 16 days, a time frame which included the completion of decking, matting and lighting.
“I have total faith in these guys [Myrtha Pools],” Cliff said. “I went over to Italy to the factory (last fall) to look at the structure and saw how it works, and it makes perfectly good sense.”
One more change would be nice. Please set up the cameras so we can see ALL THE LANES all the time. I’m not particularly interested in watching the lone swimmer in the lead, and definitely don’t need a close-up head shot. Believe it or not, I may be interested in seeing the swimmer in Lane 2 touch out the swimmer in Lane 6 for fourth place. Or I can watch the leader. Please oh PLEASE let ME decide which swimmers to watch.
Thanks for the Trials pool update, Loretta!
With all of these changes, I’m sure that you and I are both hoping that they also bring in the multi-color lane lines that will be used in the Olympic Games as well! They’re the best for the fans — both in the stands and those watching on screens.
Will they run 10 swimmers per heat in prelims, or just keep those outside lanes empty to cut down on turbulence?