How Are All These NYC Pools Olympic?

Interesting that meets were held there. I don't think meets are held at any of the NYC Pools now. I wonder if something could be restarted. Are there any swimming groups that might be interested in that? You can't beat the price of usage which would probably be...nothing. The Parks Dep't holds a masters meet every year at the Chelsea Pool (an indoor 25 yard pool at 25th Street and 9th Avenue), usually in May. Best of all -- no entry fee! :banana:

Tom, your link to the NYC pools brought back some great memories. One of my favorite places as an age grouper was Astoria pool. LCM meets were held at the "deep" end of the pool and were conducted across the width. The rest of the huge pool was more shallow and had these weird pyramid type structures (filtering systems?) in it. A great place to play between races. The 1964 Olympic trials were held at Astoria pool. As a 10 year old, I was amazed at how "old" one of the female swimmers at Trials was. Back then, pre Title IX, virtually no one swam competitively past HS. It was USMS's own Jane Katz, racing at the ancient age of 20 or 21. Over 30 years later I got the opportunity to meet Jane at '95 LC Nats and tell her how much her swimming inspired me and made me realize that the competitive spark knows no age limit.

Thanks for the photo link, Tom. Yes, we could swim near and jump off the pyramids in the 60's. The pool setting was great, nestled between the Triboro Bridge and a large railroad bridge. The pool had a large park area surrounding it. We raced in alot of NYC rec pools but that was over 40 years ago.

1 pool that I swam in over the summer was advertised as a 50 meter pool. If it was I broke all of the world records easily. It was probably about 25 yards.

Tom, your link to the NYC pools brought back some great memories. One of my favorite places as an age grouper was Astoria pool. LCM meets were held at the "deep" end of the pool and were conducted across the width. The rest of the huge pool was more shallow and had these weird pyramid type structures (filtering systems?) in it. A great place to play between races. The 1964 Olympic trials were held at Astoria pool. As a 10 year old, I was amazed at how "old" one of the female swimmers at Trials was. Back then, pre Title IX, virtually no one swam competitively past HS. It was USMS's own Jane Katz, racing at the ancient age of 20 or 21. Over 30 years later I got the opportunity to meet Jane at '95 LC Nats and tell her how much her swimming inspired me and made me realize that the competitive spark knows no age limit. I lived near that pool, and my wife has tried to swim there. Astoria park was a nice place back in the day.

Tom, your link to the NYC pools brought back some great memories. One of my favorite places as an age grouper was Astoria pool. LCM meets were held at the "deep" end of the pool and were conducted across the width. The rest of the huge pool was more shallow and had these weird pyramid type structures (filtering systems?) in it. A great place to play between races. Hi Karlene, Here's the picture taken from space of the Astoria Pool... maps.google.com/ It's listed as 330' x 165' x 4' on the NYC Parks website and looks like the Sunset Park pool a few blocks from my house with the sprinker pool on one side and diving pool on the other. You can see what looks like a big tower at the dive pool, but the dark patch in the bottom might indicate dirt meaning they probably don't use it anymore. I've bicycled past there on the 5 boro bicycle tour. I know those funny pyramid things. Actually, I don't see them in the Astoria Pool pic. You can see them clearly as big dots in the other pics I posted though. They are about 6'-8' in diameter, centered across the width and divide the pool in thirds along the length at the low points indicated by the long drains. The guards don't let the kids climb up on them. They were probably more lenient years ago. They usually put up lane lines to divide the pool in thirds and keep the recreational swimmers and dippers in one third and the lap swimmers in another. Usually the last third is kept empty. The only time I've seen that one used is on the busiest days like July 4. The Sunset Park and Red Hook pools are surprisingly underutilized. You can usually get a 50m (approx) lane to yourself or share it with one other person, and the lanes are very wide. Maybe because they close at 7pm a lot of adults can't get there in time. The water is very clear and always cold. I suspect they add water to it constantly because the pool never warms up the whole summer. On the other hand, they don't seem to vacuum or filter it very well, because there is always a lot of hair and other junk on the bottom. I may have to complain about that and cause these City workers to get more on the ball. They always have a big lifeguard and maintenance staff, most of whom have a lot of free time. Interesting that meets were held there. I don't think meets are held at any of the NYC Pools now. I wonder if something could be restarted. Are there any swimming groups that might be interested in that? You can't beat the price of usage which would probably be...nothing.

It wouldn't hurt so much if it weren't so true. Some of us make time to swim between the yelling and stogies, though.

Answer: New Yorkers don't swim. They smoke and start arguments. John Smith

:laugh2: True

Wow, imagine if that 330' pool had lane lines going the other way... one length of the pool would be 100 meters. Imagine the workouts one could do. A 1000-meter swim would just be 5 times up and back. That would sure be nice for those of us who easily lose count of our laps! I just don't want to be there for the 100 fly.