As strictly controlled lockdowns are being replicated from city to city and country to country, swimmers around the world are finding their pools are being closed.

While the average open water swimmer is not necessarily impacted with a closure of their local pool – because they can always use their favorite open body of water – for all the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim qualifiers, these closures are a time of stress, frustration and worry.

American 2020 Tokyo Olympians Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson were among a group of USA National Team and Junior National Team swimmers who were training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, but were suddenly told to go home after the state authorities ordered the facility to close in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to SwimSwam.

Olympic swimmers who have previously trained at American universities were told – like the rest of the student bodies – to leave campus and cease their dryland and pool workouts. Same with swimmers who train in city or publicly-owned pools or fitness club.
Let’s rally the swimming community. When Dave Marsh starts to take to the open water, you know that out-of-the-box training and creativity are becoming a necessity for coaches and athletes.

From the New York Times:

“…Dave Marsh, an elite swim coach for several Olympic hopefuls based in San Diego, had just wrapped up morning training with his swimmers and was preparing for an announcement of a delay when he learned the I.O.C. was not wavering.

“If things don’t change dramatically, I don’t see how they don’t change the schedule,” Marsh said. “Let’s just do it one year later. The sooner we make that kind of decision the better.”

For Marsh and so many other coaches and athletes, coronavirus has crushed regular training plans. The two 50-meter pools where Marsh’s swimmers train are closed. He said a friend has a two-lane, 20-yard pool with starting blocks in his backyard, but that is hardly suitable for the high-intensity training of an Olympic swimmer.

He told his swimmers Tuesday to get a wet suit and plan on having training sessions in the city’s Mission Bay or in the ocean off La Jolla, despite the leopard sharks that are there. “They aren’t too dangerous,” Marsh said.

Thomas Bach, the I.O.C. president, has insisted the Games go forward.

Bach insisted that the efforts to contain coronavirus would allow for the Olympics to take place in July.

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