For years, Auburn University has had one of the top competition and training facilities in the country in the James E. Martin Aquatic Center. In the fall of 2007, Auburn furthered the commitment to its athletes as the Tigers opened their new outdoor pool, adjacent to AU's Student Activities Center.
Sitting at the former site of Auburn's Luther Young Tennis Courts, the outdoor pool is 50-meters long and 25-meters wide. It can be set up with 10 lanes for long course (50-meter) swimming or 22 lanes for short course (25-meters).
The pool holds 600,000 gallons of water and is heated so that it can be used throughout the year.
"The outdoor facility adds that additional level of flexibility for our training and preparation," said head coach Brett Hawke. "Swimmers, for the most part, if the weather is nice would rather train outdoors because of the air quality and the freshness, the sunshine, everything that goes along with swimming outdoors."
Along with the bonus of training outdoors, the outdoor pool offers an advantage in training for international competitions as many of those are held outdoors.
"It is a wonderful training facility, it is a tremendous complement to the indoor facility that we have," said Hawke. "It is also is a tremendous asset in regard to recruiting and to training, in particular at the Olympic level."
