The worst pool in the world ?

Some pools I swam in: Philadelphia Turners Down in the cellar, peeling paint from the ceiling dripping in the pool, 20 yards square, no filter, water drained every Sat. night, filled Sun and we swam in unheated water Mon. Pipes all over the ceiling. Coach came once a week on Saturday, Joe Kirk Clementon Lake Park, NJ Had meets here over a 50m course laid on the shores of the lake. It was Cranberry water and it was like swimming in wine. Seaside Heights, NJ 50 m salt water, had meets here at night no lane lines, lights only at one end

I can remember swimming in some Y pools that were like dungeons - kind of dark with very low ceilings and no windows. I too remember the lack of goggles and how all the street lights had rings around them after practice. As for water temperature, the pools of my youth were much cooler than the pools I swim in now. Some of them were almost painful to get into. The pool I swim in now is usually kept much too warm in order to accomodate the water aerobics and arthritis classes. It's a 50 meter pool, but they use it like a therapy pool. In the summer I go through a large water bottle per workout and still feel wilted while I'm swimming. Sigh! They had heater problems for a couple of weeks after Christmas and the swimmers were delighted. Today the water was 80, which is the best the swimmers can hope for most of the time. However, after swimming in water that was down around 75, it felt pretty warm to me. However, the water aerobes, who were back for the first time in several weeks thought the water was really cold.

Warm-up pool at the old Los Angeles olympic pool that was built in 1932. The water was too cold. Also, I think Linwood California, 50 meter pool that was built in the 1950's, that too was too cold. In breastroke and butterfly you have difficulty breathing on the dives and starts with these pools. Both pools were dated by the early 1970's and I think the Linwood pool use the old lane lines.

The worst pool I ever swam in for competition was my summer swim club in Tarrytown, New York. It was built for recreation only with no foresight to a swim team in the future. Needless to say, a team was started and to this day, swims in a trapezoid-shaped pool, which is wider in the 3 foot shallow end than in the 12 foot deep end. 5 lane lines are painted because only 5 will fit. For competition, however, there are 6 blocks and lanes. The poor person in the lane without a lane line swims into the curve at the end of the pool. It's also 33 1/3 yards long (100 feet). Try making sense of those records, especially the really slow 100 yard records (3 laps)!

I'm with Jean: virtually every dink, foul basement Y pool in the old 70's-80's Yankee Cluster League in the state of Connecticut: Winsted, Torrington, Ansonia, Middletown, Hamden, Wallingford, and my fabulous home pool at the Danbury Y. 5 lane, 20 yards, wood box blocks with pieces chipping off, pure chlorine in the air, rings around the streetlights, lousy showers, and jerk coaches. Bad memories...thank God for California.

Leaving aside all the 40 foot glorified bathtubs in hotels, my choice is a Y pool (name withheld to protect the guilty) I used when my regular pool was closed for its two week annual maintenance. This pool is one of the dark dungeons Jean describes and not particularly clean. It has three (!) lanes available for swimming, sometimes with two lanes combined into one big lane -- actually its a four lane pool, but one of the end lanes is unusable because the management has chosen to install steps. This pool also features a continous spray of water, from above the water line, at the end of each lane, just about at the point you would turn. It's kept at about 85º. Even when it's crowded, there's no attempt at all to enforce lane pace (or any lane etiquette, at all). The effect is that the lanes are "slow," "slower" and "stationary" free-for-alls, where you take your life in your hands trying to pass. My regular pool is probably the best in New York -- I think they set up a reciprocity arrangement with this place just so we'll know.

I would have to say that the worst pool I ever swam in was in Ouxtepec, Mexico. I guess I need to say that this pool went from a great pool to the worst pool within one weeks time. Our college team travelled there during the holiday break to compete with the Mexican and French Junior National teams. During the two days we competed in the pool it was absolutely beautiful. We stayed for another week to train and enjoy the warm weather in central Mexico. I would have to guess that after the meet finished the pool maintaince had to have stopped. They didn't pump any chemicals in nor did they vacuum the pool. To top it off, the village around the complex was burning the sugar cane fields and ashes were floating into the pool. I remember by day 4 you couldn't see the bottom of the pool, there was trash floating on the edges, with foam and hair stuck to the wall. Coach was absolutely mad about the whole situation and also had to pretty much threw all of our butts in the water everday. They say don't drink the water in Mexico... I say don't swim in it either..... Since that experience I have never complained about the pool we have in the USA. Small minor chemical problems just don't compare.

While not a pool, pre se, how about this – As reported in Swiminfo.com Lynne Cox Swims a Mile In Antarctic Ocean; US long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox made two swims from a tourist ship in Antarctic Peninsula waters recently. The first was made in Admiralty Bay off King George Island on 13 December and the second in Neko Harbour two days later. Both swims were made from the landing platform of US-based tour company Quark Expedition's ship 'Orlova' to points on shore. The Admiralty Bay swim was over a distance close to 1,500 meters (a metric mile), the landing being made adjacent to the Polish national program station Arctowski. The swim in Neko Harbour was of 1,900 meters and Cox stepped ashore on the continent near the old Argentinian refuge hut. Cox's stated goal was to become the first person to swim a mile in Antarctic waters. The first swim, which was a "practice" for her mile attempt, took just over 22 minutes in two-degree centigrade water (36 degrees Fahrenheit), while the mile in Neko Harbour, where the water was 0.5 degrees centigrade (33F), took 25 minutes.

The New Yorker magazine of Feb. 3 had the whole story of her swim, written by Lynn Cox herself. I recommend that you read it.

The worst are some of the older Bally/Scandanavian Health Club pools. Approx. 3 "lanes" which can NOT hold 2 people at the same time with a 4th lane (with the mandatory stairs at one end) for the "walkers". Pool temperature kept at a nice "toasty" 85+ degrees for the little old ladies complaining "it's too cold" when they do their water aerobics. Pools are approx. 23 yards long (try doing the math there!), ceilings are low (with swagged material hanging from the ceiling making it lower) and the only windows are about 15 feet at the shallow end about 15 feet from the pool. Oh and don't forget the murky water so that in the deep end (about 6-7 feet) you can't see the wall to turn. I joined the club to swim -- now I won't even use the hot tub or steam room and forget about the pool. Too many men who can't read signs saying "no shaving" in the steam room. They all seem to be able to read the little words under "no shaving" that says "except for you"!.