OSU Athletics
Just One More 130 Million Dollar Gem
Part three of a three-part series
By John PorentasEditor's Note. This is part three of a three-part series. We recommend reading parts one and two before reading part three.
Part One, Part Two, Photo Gallery
Photo by Jim DavidsonThe most difficult aspect of actually describing the competition pool at the McCorkle Aquatic Center is adhering the writing axiom of avoiding hyperbole.
Former swimmer Matt Bretcher described the swimming facility as jaw-dropping. According to Head Swimming Coach Bill Wadley, the first glimpse of the pool had a similar effect on current OSU swimmer R. J. Lemyre.
"Coach, it almost made me cry," Lemyre told Wadley when he gave him his first glimpse of the McCorkle Aquatics Center.
The people at Ohio State think that their pool is now the premier facility in the country, and after seeing it, it is hard to argue with them. Whether or not OSU's new facility is better than facilities elsewhere it open to debate, but the mere fact that Ohio State now has a facility that can legitimately be entered in such a debate is remarkable. The contrast between the old facility on campus and the new one is almost indescribable.
The Nuts and Bolts
The McCorkle Aquatics center actually consists of two separate buildings, one devoted to competition swimming, the other to recreational, instructional and rehabilitation uses. The competition facility consists of three bodies of water, the swimming pool, the diving well, and a divers' spa where divers can keep warm between dives. The non-competition pool is also a multi-pool facility with two large pools and several smaller spas.
"In all there are seven bodies of water," said Wadley.
The two buildings are adjacent to one another and access from one building to the other is easy through a connecting tunnel system.
The competition pool includes every feature possible to make it user-friendly, flexible, and what OSU officials say is the fastest pool in America.
"We paid attention to every little detail," said Wadley.
"When you go into most pools you feel like you're in a dungeon. You can't see outside and it's dark and dreary. This is really open and really bright and light," Wadley said.
The pool features both direct and indirect lighting, and a ceiling-to-floor wall of windows at one end that allows a view of the competiton pool from a concourse area. There are windows along the side of the building as well, but even the placement of those windows was thought out.
"The windows are all below knee-height, so there is no glare from them on the water. We also have a shade system which automatically raises and lowers shades as the sun rises and sets so there is no glare for the swimmer or spectators," Wadley said.
The acoustical characteristics of the pool will allow announcements to be heard clearly and easily over the P.A. system, but the pool itself is nearly silent.
"We would like for you to come into our pool and not hear it, no splashing sound, not smell it, no chlorine smell," said Wadley.
"There is acoustical tile on the sides walls and also on the ceiling. The sound in here is very good. We have speakers about every 20 feet or so, big huge speakers on both sides of the pool, and they're pointed toward the spectators. We want you to know who is in what lane for what race. Our lighting is sort of alternating up and down to get an indirect lighting effect off the white tile ceiling," Wadley said.
Extreme measures were take for both fan and participant comfort. That includes the creation of temperature zones within the building.
"We have a different temperature on the deck for the athletes in their swim suits than for the spectators in the stands," said Wadley.
"We really paid special attention to the little things that will make this a special environment in which to compete."
The large decks surrounding the pool are an important feature of the facility.
"We can accommodate around 1,200 people on the decks," said Wadley. "That's as many swimmers and officials as you might have at the biggest swim meets in America."
Seating on both sides of the pool allows for twice as many people to be at the finish line. The pool also features a state-of-the art scoreboard and matrix board that will allow replay of races. It will also be capable of showing an underwater view of events.
"We put in a video board like the Schottenstein center and the stadium, so we'll be able to show the races on the video board and we get an underwater camera when we have synchronized swimming, which is a great vantage point where people can see how much work goes into the sport," said Associate Director of Athletics Miechelle Willis.
The pool itself is large, and features a moveable bulkhead that allows it to be used for several competition configurations.
"It's 10 lanes, 50 x 25 meters. Most competitive pools are eight lanes, 50 meters by 25 yards, so it's a wider pool," said Wadley.
Photo by Jim DavidsonThe extra width, combined with the moveable bulkhead, creates tremendous flexibility. Depending on where the bulkhead is placed, the pool can be configured many ways.
"We obviously have a 50 meter pool, but we also can have two 25 meter pools by moving the bulkhead to the center of the pool. We also can have two 25 yard pools. We even can swim width-wise and have 22 lanes at 25 meters," said Wadley.
In the 50 meter configuration, the pool will feature 10 lanes. All ten lanes will most likely be used in preliminary heats at swimming events, but for finals, only eight will be used, and that, along with several other features, will help make McCorkle a very, very fast pool.
The Need for Speed
A smooth stroke is a good start toward being fast as a swimmer, but to be really fast, one other essential is needed - smooth water. Every measure possible was taken to make McCorkle's waters smooth...and very fast.
The main design challenge in making a pool smooth and therefore fast is the elimination of waves that are created by contestants. The most important features in that quest are the depth of the pool and the gutters on each side of the pool whose function it is to dispose of turbulent water before it becomes a problem for swimmers.
Photo by Jim Davidson"Our gutters are really deep," said Wadley.
"We have two-foot, six-inch deep gutters. I tell people that you could teach a baby how to swim in the gutters, that's how deep they are. They're 12 inches wide and two-feet, six-inches deep, so when the water flows over the edge, when there's racing going on in the pool and it rolls over, it goes down and it gets lost. You'll never feel it again. Most competitive pools have a depth of gutter of eight to 12 inches. Most of then are only are four to six inches wide."
"The other thing that makes a pool fast is the depth of the pool. Our shallow end is seven feet deep. When we're swimming long course, you're basically diving into 7'-6" and it gets deeper toward the middle, 10'6" in the middle, then it's 9'6" at the far end. The depth of the pool is a real factor. What happens is that any surface turbulence sort of dissipates slowly. In a shallow pool, it sort of hits the bottom and bounces back up. In a deep pool like this one, the waves dissipate in all that depth," said Wadley.
Final race events will be run in the traditional eight-lane format at McCorkle, but the extra-wide pool with 10 lanes means that there will be one empty lane on each side of the swimmers. That creates a buffers zone of water between the swimmer and the wall, and helps maintain an ultra smooth competition surface.
The end result is a pool that will support world class times.
"This pool is very similar to the Sydney pool used in the 2000 games. Everyone believes that was one of the fastest Olympic pools they ever swam in," said Wadley.
An A+ in Every Category
The McCorkle Aquatics Center succeeds in every goal set forth by its planners. It will certainly attract high-caliber athletes to Ohio State, and it will definitely put Ohio State on the map as a host venue for important swimming events, though Wadley says that the competition also strong.
"There are a lot of challenges and a lot of good coaches out there,"" said Wadley.
"Minnesota and Purdue have two of the best pools in the country. Indiana has one of the best pools in America. Michigan built their pool in the early 90s. These are all new pools just in our conference. Auburn has a new pool and they've been winning, and Texas has great facilities and they've been winning," said Wadley, who then added that Ohio State may now have gained an edge and an important swimming venue on the national scene.
"I think our facility is a special one.
"In the next three or four years we expect to see NCAA championships here, U.S.A. national either summer or winter championships. We would like to even make bids for things like the World University games, because we have dormitories and housing."
Wadley also sees the obvious recruiting advantages, such as attracting high-level high school events so that top swimmer will see the facility.
"One of the things we would like to do is host some local events. We would like to host the Ohio High School State Championships. On our list of importance, that's really high. We'd like to host the Central Ohio District meet as well," he said.
The facility hopes to attract high-level competitive events, but isn't likely to attract events such as the Olympic trials. Even pools such as the 5,000 seat facility in Indianapolis are now deemed inadequate for Olympic trial events.
"Indianapolis seats 5,000, but it is mostly unused now," said Wadley.
"Most of the meets that are Olympic trial kind of meets don't go to that kind of venue anymore. What they're trying to do is sell television and marketing rights, so they would put a temporary pool in a building like the Schottenstein Center for example like they did in Conseco this past fall. It takes them two weeks to put in a temporary 50 meter pool. It's unbelievable. Olympic trials will be in that environment from now on, so nobody is going to get Olympic trials for swimming in a venue that is not large," said Wadley.
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