The 1968 Belmont Plaza Olympic Trials Pool is going to be razed to make way for a newer facility!

Mark Spitz qualified for his first Olympics in that pool. The pool was also featured in a Da Vinci Code movie with Tom Hanks pretending to be a water polo player. The Grunions Swim Club held their annual short meters championships in that pool and I set a couple personal bests there.

I feel proud to have swam in that pool. I look forward to the new one!

From The Press Telegram: 

The Belmont Pool design centers around a 50-meter by 25-yards indoor pool with a movable floor allowing shallow water for public recreational needs and deep water for competitions.

It also has the diving well after lobbying by aquatics groups eager to carry on the tradition of the Belmont Pool, the site of the 1968 and 1976 U.S. Olympic trials.

The plan additionally features a 50-meter by 25-yard outdoor pool, a 900-square-foot teaching and therapy pool, a general-use whirlpool and a smaller diver whirlpool.

Dino D’Emilia, project manager for the new pool complex, said he expects heavy demolition to take about a month-and-a-half and begin in mid-November.

The finished pool could open sometime in 2017. A temporary, outdoor pool has been constructed in the interim.

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