Olympic Trials Pool Acquisition

Imagine Douglas County's first 50-meter competition pool, carrying the story of a Colorado Olympic legend.

The Colorado Aquatic Center is being developed within the Zebulon Regional Sports Complex near Sterling Ranch, a campus buzzing with football, soccer, baseball, and softball fields. Within the facility, three sheets of ice, basketball, volleyball, a restaurant, fitness center, and classrooms share the building with the Colorado Aquatic Center, which is developed independently as its own space. The centerpiece of the Aquatic Center will be a 50 meter pool...but this pool isn't just any pool. It's a piece of Colorado Olympic history.

This Myrtha pool was the warm-up pool at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, where Colorado's own Missy Franklin took her laps before qualifying for London and becoming a national icon. After the trials, it was disassembled and stored. Now it's ready for a second life, and we're running out of time to bring it home.

Once installed, its main "tank" becomes our 50-meter competition pool, configurable for 10 long-course or 20 short-course lanes, able to be configured for two simultaneous water polo games, or many other uses for our partners and community users alike. A 25-yard bump-out becomes our instructional and therapy pool, a year-round home for learn-to-swim, lifeguard training, aquatic therapy & rehab, and community recreation. One Olympic Trials pool, two massive opportunities for community impact.

Myrtha, the original manufacturer, stands behind it with a full warranty, and because this is a recovered pool rather than a new build, it costs far less than comparable new pools.

We're just $475,000 away from completing this purchase, and Colorado Gives Day is our best chance to close the gap.

Your gift today helps CAF close this final stretch and bring this remarkable piece of Olympic history home to the Colorado Aquatic Center.