City's Swimming Teams Have Little Pool Space
Swimming usually cools you off. But after Michael Phelps and Team USA struck gold in the Beijing Olympics, the sport couldn't be hotter these days.
“Michael Phelps is one of my heroes,” said Shani Watler of the New York City Aquatic Club. “It was great seeing them race and seeing what their bodies can do in the water.”
The golden Olympian himself made a splash with kids on a recent trip to the Chelsea YMCA, donating money and promoting swim safety programs. But children who really aspire to be like the new Phelps say pursuing the sport on a competitive level can be a challenge in a crowded city.
“It's completely different. I mean, in New York there's not enough room for a big pool,” said Noah Conely, a swimmer at the YMCA. “I mean, this is just a 25-meter pool. If you want to really be competitive, you swim in a 50-meter pool.”
“Summer is especially the hardest because it is a long course season and there aren't many long courses in Manhattan,” said Kristina Fritsch of the NYCAC.
While there are no lack of programs in the city between the YMCA, Parks and Recreation and public school programs, swimmers and their coaches say cramming in practice time and finding pools where they can develop skills can get in the way of the training process.
In order to get their practice time, the NYC Aquatic Club rents space at Baruch College. But they say getting in pool space and pool time can still be a crunch.
“You share these lanes here at Baruch, we share the lanes with the college community, the community at large, with the Baruch swim team and four different master teams,” said NYCAC senior coach Len Galluzzi.
Club teams say while they have got some promising swimmers, they struggle against country club teams out of Westchester who practice with more space.
City public schools have about 50 pools, but many are in disrepair and teams often share space. Officials say they are continuing to work on improving the situation with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's more than $13 billion capital improvement plan.
“We're big believers in fitness and making sure that our children have as much access to different opportunities for physical fitness which includes our pools as well,” said Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott. “So we're working strategically using those dollars to renovate pools where they need renovating.”
Students say the more pools and programs the better, because they wouldn't mind taking a stab at steaming up the lanes of a London pool in the 2012 Olympics.