2025 Midwest Best Projects
Award of Merit, Sports and Entertainment: 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Pools
2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Pools
Indianapolis
Award of Merit
Submitted by Shiel Sexton Co.
Owner: USA Swimming; Indiana Sports Corp.
Engineer of Record: Counsilman-Hunsacker
Pool Manufacturer: Myrtha Pools
Pool Contractor: Spear Corp.
Production/Decking: Dodd Technologies
Owner’s Representative: Shiel Sexton Co.
Two years of planning went into an event that lasted just nine days and brought 285,000 fans to the city of Indianapolis, which was host for the 2024 USA Olympic Swim Trials.
Lucas Oil Stadium is the first-ever NFL stadium to host such an event. To make this possible, the project team used a 10-ft-tall pool deck that spanned an acre to avoid drilling into the stadium floor and included three pools for warm-up, cool-down and competition. Pre-work included installing a tap into the heating hot water system and a piping extension for a heat exchanger that maintained the pool temperatures at the required 79°F.
In the lead up to the event and to combat potential schedule delay, the project team planned daily and hourly on major activities. The pool materials were procured in Italy and took four weeks to travel by barge to the U.S. Sourcing the water posed another problem. The project team determined that the most efficient way to provide the water was to pump it into the stadium using a Capitol Avenue fire hydrant. Two million gallons of water came through the hydrant, went into a clarifying pump and through a heater before it was moved into the pools.
A meticulous two-year planning and coordination effort paid off with the project’s on time and within budget completion in June 2024.
