Getting Ready for Omaha - Watch!

Pool prep for U.S. Swim trials

 Swimmers coming to Omaha for the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials were amazed to find an arena that looked like it was built specifically for their sport.

"It's an amazing venue,'' Michael Phelps said during his Omaha stop on the way to a record eight gold medals in Beijing.

Now with the return of the trials set for June 2012, plans are in the works to once again turn the CenturyLink Center into one of the world's largest and best swimming venues.

Representatives of Myrtha Pools, the Italian company that will make and install the 50-meter pool in the arena, and USA Swimming were in Omaha on Friday checking out the facility and discussing their plans.

The competition pool and a warm-up pool to be built in the CenturyLink's convention center will be pretty much identical to those that were installed in 2008, said Trevor Tiffany, head of Myrtha's North American operations.

The pools, each holding a million gallons with 50,000 individual parts, will be built in Castiglione, Italy, and shipped 5,000 miles to Omaha. They will take up to 12 days to install, beginning on May 23, 2012.

Myrtha is loaning the pools for the trials, the cost of set-up shared by the company and USA Swimming. Both pools will then be sold — with the possibility that one will remain in the Omaha area.

The competition pool already has been sold. But the warmup pool remains available, and there has been some local buyer interest, Tiffany said. "There are lots of people vying for it, but we hope it will stay local.''

Doug Parrott of the Omaha Sports Commission confirmed there is an ongoing effort to keep a pool here, leaving a lasting legacy of the trials' run in Omaha. It was also hoped in 2008 that one of the pools would find a home in the Omaha area but, in the end, one ended up in California and the other in Virginia.

"We hope it will work out in 2012,'' Parrott said. "There's a lot of demand for a quality pool like this.''

Much like last time, pool installation will involve temporary removal of nine permanent rows of arena seats in the CenturyLink Center. That raising of the arena floor by about 10 feet, needed to fit the massive 10-lane pool and deck, helps create an intimate environment for up to 12,000 fans — one that 2008's top swimmers remember.

"Everyone was really close, kind of like at a baseball game,'' Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte said recently.

It proved to be a fast pool, too. Nine world records fell during the eight-day meet.

The success of the pool, the meet and the way the city embraced the trials are a big reason Phelps, Lochte and more than 1,000 of the nation's other top swimmers are expected to come back to Omaha for the 2012 trials, set for June 25 to July 2. Ticket packages are on sale now, with more than 150,000 total fans expected to attend over the course of the meet.

Between the trials, a Mutual of Omaha-sponsored meet June 8-10 and the U.S. Masters national championships that follow the trials on July 5-8, the competition pool will occupy the CenturyLink arena for about seven weeks.

Overall, Tiffany said, it's helpful that this will be the second go-round in Omaha for Myrtha, the pools and the trials.

"You've done it before, so you know you can do it again,'' he said. "This is probably one of the easiest places in the world we've worked. The people are wonderful, and the facility is magnificent.''