Returning to the pool while adhering to social distancing guidelines is going well for Georgia-based club team SwimAtlanta through two days of practice, coach Chris Davis told SwimSwam.
Coaches are running workouts from 6 a.m. to about 8 a.m. Swimmers enter and exit the facility through different doors, and must arrive at practice already dressed to get in the water. They have about five minutes to leave the facility after practice ends.
The locker room and weight room are not available for use, and the swimmers all have their own in-water equipment, so contamination through sharing gear is not a concern.
SwimAtlanta can have as many as 48 swimmers per practice at its long course Sugarloaf location, Davis said. USA Swimming’s guidelines for teams released earlier this month demonstrate how to safely host as many as 60 swimmers in a 10-lane long course pool.
Davis added that having swimmers do doubles is not an option at this point, as the pool is in use all day as it is, but that he could see using open water swims as a potential option to fit in extra workouts.
Georgia’s pools officially reopened on Thursday after Governor Brian Kemp let the order to close them expire. In the state, public pools can reopen with 10 or fewer people (which is the state’s new policy for most businesses and government venues). The only exception is if more than 10 people can be accommodated with at least six feet of space.
Dynamo Swim Club, one of the United States’ largest teams, also returned to training Thursday in Georgia.
Concerning actual appropriate distancing out of the water at the Sugarloaf facility – not happening 100% of the time. Swimmers are immediately adjacent to one another on deck, and as soon as outside, happy to see each other and giving hugs, etc. Not all, some, but it was surprising to see. In water, where vast majority of time is spent, good separation maintained and able to adhere to the guidelines referenced in the article. Definitely could use some behavior modification of swimmers when away from coaches’ immediate supervision. That’s the reality, for now. We shall see if there are any health ramifications, eventually.
Dynamo returned also article says. Practices are not mandatory. Don’t send your kids if you do not want to. Sure they wear masks on entrance . Who knows if limited numbers for each practice like every other lane. I am sure one toilet is open. Most facilities have at least one open who have opened. Every city, state , county different , I pay attention to Italy not South Korea as our numbers closer to theirs.
Interesting that GT opened their doors. Is the campus open? I have been wondering if teams that use colleges would be able to use the pools
They’re at Sugerloaf, which is in the suburbs and owned by Swim Atlanta. McAuley & Ramsey are still closed. Don’t know if or where Tech is swimming, but those who are in Athens right now are training at local, private pools.
GT has not opened their recreational facility, including pool. Tech swimmers are going to Sugarloaf in the late afternoons/evening.
I think they’re out of the sugarloaf location not GT
It’s great that teams are able to get back in the water and begin training again. I wish my team had the option, but our facilities still closed for at least another month
No restrooms?!? Come on!
Pretty sure that they would rather you use a toilet than ruin the pool for everyone if it really came down to it…
Everybody knows that swimmers never need to go to toilet even doing long training sessions…it also warms the warm a little!
I don’t think the number 2 warms up the pool too much
All kids pee in the pool anyway. Doesn’t matter.
And if a girl has a problem with something other than 1 or 2? Then what?
A sanitary break is a human right .If coaches do not allow then they should be reported for abuse.
Swimmers should treat the bathroom just as they do at home , which is one at a time & clean it up . There are no slaves / washroom attendants even in Georgia anymore.
Even a 2 year old can identify the necessary products on the bathroom shelf & do a good job .
A sanitary break is just undeniably not a human right, that implies for the thousands of years before indoor plumbing, people were somehow not human…..
The same way that restaurants don’t have to have public restrooms, Swim Atlanta owns the facility they are practicing out of ( I believe) so they can CHOOSE to provide public restrooms or not at their business venture.
I can’t speak for SwimAtlanta, but for our team no restrooms means arriving dressed to swim and leaving in your suit. No showering, changing after practice, or storing gear in the locker room. Swimmers are encouraged to come prepared not to need the restroom but they will be allowed to if it’s entirely necessary.
Restrooms are available for use. No more than one kid at a time. But that’s common sense unlike most of the comments in here!
Let’s wait three weeks, see how many people will get sick.
Way too early to celebrate anything.
For some perspective, Georgia started Phase 1 of reopening businesses a full three weeks ago. There has not been an explosion of cases or deaths.
Considering the incubation period is up to 14 days, not a lot of solace in thi8s.
3 weeks = 21 days, so not sure what point you’re making? There’s a 7 day buffer at this point.
A 7-day buffer to figure out you’re sick enough to get tested from initial symptoms, arrange for and get the test (assuming it’s readily available, which it’s not), and wait 72 hours if not hospitalized for the results (if it’s over a weekend, longer), and then have those results counted in the official count. So, like I was saying, pretty premature to be making any claims about “perspective”. Fulton County is not exactly slowing down in case rate or fatalities, and this past week had an uptick.
Ok. Point is, Phase 1 has been happening and hospitals aren’t overwhelmed or any other doomsday scenario you hear from people like you.
Anyway, as always, if you’re concerned stay home.
I can’t stay home. I work in a hospital, often taking care of idiots who think it’s safe to be in public unmasked. See the article on South Korea today in SwimSwam. If you don’t think nearly 90,000 dead (and growing), 30 million unemployed (and growing), complete economic collapse, the majority of countries not letting U.S. citizens in isn’t a doomsday scenario you’re dangerously optimistic.
I certainly agree that people shouldn’t be doing unsafe things, like gathering without masks. I just believe that we can carefully begin opening up.
Are you a bot Ol Longhorn?
Just because his opinion differ from you doesn’t mean he’s some foreign government bot trying to sow division or something.
It’s not like every citizen in the country is at a consensus on what to do next. The best future path for our country lies with people on both sides of the aisle trying to meet in the middle and make reasonable decisions that protect health and economy. (Not that I think our current political environment lends itself to listening to others opinions and forming your own idea about issues…)
I obviously know he’s not a bot. But he seems quite convinced that everyone will die if they do anything other than sit in their house. Too much CNN Ol Longhorn. Turn off the tube.
You really trust the Kemp administration to test as much as they can and release the results? Trump said it out loud the other day, something like ‘If you don’t test, you don’t have cases.’
You kind of sound like you’re hoping for it to get bad again. Sad.
Irrational and illogical….