Swimming Canada has awarded the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Team Trials to the city of Toronto. The meet will be hosted in the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre and will take place in April of 2016. The meet will be sponsored by several different groups including the City of Toronto, Toronto Tourism, and the University of Toronoto @ Scarborough.
The meet will run from April 5th-10th, and once again be concurrent Olympic and Paralympic trials. This is about a week later in the calendar than we saw in 2008 and 2012, but should reduce conflicts for the growing list of Canadian swimmers who are based in the American college (NCAA) system, as past trials have overlapped with the NCAA Championships.
“TPASC is the most elite high performance training and competition facility in the country,” says Bob Singleton, Managing Director, Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. “We’re excited to host this event, and to enhance the city and region of Toronto’s reputation as both a world-class destination and a leader in sporting facilities.”
The aquatics center was designed to seat 6,000 fans. The facility will also include two 10-lane pools; a competition pool and a separate training/warm-up pool. The facility will also contain a diving well with three diving platform heights (3, 7.5 and 10 meters) as well as a dry diving training center. The TPASC the only aquatics facility in the area that meets FINA competition standards and will become the first facility with a warm-up pool.
The facility will also host the 2015 Pan American / Parapan American games.
“The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre represents the single largest investment ever made in amateur sport development in Canada,” according to a release. “Co-owned by the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto Scarborough, TPASC was developed in partnership with the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario.”
Montreal has hosted the last two Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials. Toronto has not hosted an Olympic Trials since 1956, and this will be the city’s fourth time hosting (1956, 1952, 1928).
Toronto hosted the Olympic trials in 1976, 1980(boycotted games but still had a trials), 1984, and 2004 at the etobicoke Olympium.
There was a world record set in the 1984 trials by Alex Baumann (400IM) and in 1980 by Peter amidst in 400 free.
The etobicoke pool has been the site of several world records and the other 50m fina approved pool in toronto is located on the downtown campus of the university of toronto…and there was a world record set there too….2009 in the 200 breaststroke by Annamay Pierse(scm).