U.S. Swim Trials: Three pools to be built inside arena
BY MIKE PATTERSON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
As the temperature soared past 90° outside the Qwest Center Omaha on Tuesday, Trevor Tiffany was inside talking about the city's impending pool party. Trevor Tiffany is chief executive officer of Myrtha, the company that will construct the giant swimming pools for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials. That event will feature about 900 athletes and be held at the Qwest Center next summer from June 29 to July 6. "What we're going to build here will be the fastest pool in America," Tiffany said. "And Omaha will be the lucky recipient." Tiffany was part of a press conference that included Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority Presiden Roger Dixon, Olympic officials and members of the Omaha Sports Commission. "This venue is fantastic," said Harold Cliff, chief operating officer for the 2008 Olympic swimming trials. "And we have full confidence in Trevor that we're going to have a tremendous event."
Tiffany said three pools would be constructed - the main pool inside the arena, a warm-up pool for competitors located in the adjacent convention center and a smaller recreational pool as a place to hold clinics for children. The main pool will hold 1 million gallons of water and feature a deck that will take out the first 10 rows of seats in the arena. Omaha Sports Commission President Dan Morrissey said people will be amazed when they see the finished product. "It will look like the pool was here from the start," he said. "There will be nothing temporary looking about it." Tiffany said the sheer weight of that pool ruled out several potential sites that had bid on the trials. "There can't be a basement underneath or else the floor couldn't support that weight," he said. "At this facility, that will be no problem."Officials spoke of their confidence in Tiffany and Myrtha, a 40-year-old Italian company that has built swimming pools throughout the world. Myrtha has constructed pools for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the 2004 World Championships in Indianapolis, the 2004 Olympic Trials in Long Beach, Calif., and the 2005 World Championships in Montreal. "We're building a pool a day somewhere in the world," Tiffany said. "And we're excited about building some here." He added that his crews often must construct pools for competitive events under difficult circumstances. "We only had five days to get the pool built in Indianapolis," Tiffany said. "And we've had to construct some pools in the parking lot, and then move them indoors." Myrtha will have plenty of time to prepare in Omaha.
The construction of the pools will begin about three weeks before the trials. Tiffany said it will take about two dozen people working 10 to 12 hours per day to finish the jobs. "The pools are made of stainless steel," he said. "It's like an erector set, except much bigger." Olympic official Cliff said he is hopeful that the water from the pools will be recycled when the trials are completed. "We want to find a way to pump it out," he said. "We don't want to waste more than two million gallons."To accommodate the swim trials, Roger Dixon said the Qwest Center would be unavailable from mid-May to mid-July. "We'll be down about two months," he said. "And we've got events coming in right after that, so it will be importan to get everything wrapped up on time."
Dixon added that tickets are still available for the trials, which will begin 10 months from today.
