By: Claire Liu

Indianapolis’ recently developed U.S Olympic Trial Pool
Brings Fans and Swimmers an Exciting One-of a kind Experience.

American swimming fans are thrilled about the 2024 Olympic Trials held in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. After months of planning and building, what was once a football stadium had been transformed into a unique Olympic Trial pool, large enough to fit up to 30,000 fans.

Rather than building the pool with the deck equal to ground level, it was built on an elevation. Three pools were built in the stadium: one competition pool, and two warm-up pools that are easily accessible to the swimmers and hidden behind a large curtain. To maintain these pools, about two million gallons of water are taken from the white river, cleaned and chlorinated to give the swimmers the best experience in the waters.

Several new features have been added to the event this year, including incredible light shows before swims, trivia questions with the audience, and loud pumping music to increase the stadium energy. Qualifiers for semifinals and finals are typically recognized on a 50-foot-tall video board that showcases their name, home club, and qualifying time, as they walk out to the pool deck to the crowd’s cheers, preparing for their swim. The swimmers can feel the excitement and support their fans are expressing, right before their big swim.

Crowds will be able to witness spectacular swims as more than 1,000 of the U. S’s strongest and fastest swimmers compete to go to Paris. Previous Olympic swimmers like Katie Ledecky, Lilly King, and Caeleb Dressel are all back to defend their title, and this new pool promises to give them the energy and spectator support they deserve.

The spectators are offered a variety of concessions, as well as a broad selection of seats, during the exciting events. As the swimmers take their marks, dive in, and race, tens of thousands of spectators can witness lifetime best moments, broken world-records, and first ever qualifiers to the Olympics.