North Carolina’s Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC) has been chosen as the domestic training site for the U.S. Olympic swimming team next summer before the squad heads to Paris in July.
TAC is a 102,000 square-foot facility located on a 21.5-acre campus in Cary, North Carolina. It’s home to the TAC Titans, the No. 2 program in the nation based on last year’s USA Swimming club excellence rankings. TAC Titans sent 14 swimmers to the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials — more than any other club in the country — and put a pair on the Olympic team in Claire Curzan and Ashley Twichell.
The TAC facility features a recently renovated outdoor 50-meter pool, an indoor 50-meter competition pool, huge fitness center, large dry-land area, kitchen, meeting spaces, and more. The aquatic center is also undergoing a $2.4 million HVAC renovation that will recycle air at six times the current capacity by January. TAC opened its doors back in 2007 after five years of planning what it claims to be the largest nonprofit public aquatic facility in the country built without one dollar of tax funding or subsidies.
“We feel like it’s a great opportunity for us to be supportive of USA Swimming, and to be supportive of these great athletes to try to get them what they need,” TAC executive director Derek Wall said. “We’ll have to schedule our team practices around them so we give them a clean deck and no distractions. For the most part, our club won’t be able to view what they have going on, but there will be a time or two where we’ll have access to view what they’re doing in our competition pool.”
Before the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, the U.S. team held a domestic training camp for two weeks in Hawaii, but swimmers had to split up because not everyone could fit in one facility. Before the Rio 2016 Olympics, the U.S. prepared with a nine-day training stint at the Northside Swim Center in San Antonio, Texas.
The U.S. Olympic Trials will take place from June 15-23, giving the American group a little over a month to prepare for the swimming portion of Paris 2024 that runs from July 27 through August 4. There is a six-hour time change between North Carolina and Paris.
The tentative dates for the domestic training camp at TAC are June 30 through July 10.
This year, U.S. swimmers only had about two weeks separating their World Championships selection meet in Indianapolis and Worlds itself in Fukuoka, Japan. They spent 10 days in Singapore training as an intermediate stop.
Wow, the TAC pool is the worst!!! Run down facilities and locker rooms, the water and air quality is abysmal… this is a shocker.
I would think they’d train in europe Spain or France.
My condolences. GAC is an infinitely
better facility. TAC feels like a giant cave.
Cary v Greensboro? Probably Cary.
So I guess there’s that.
Here’s hoping Paris gets the bed bug sitch under control by next summer. 🪳🤢
What is really shocking is that the Greensboro Aquatic Center now only uses the “competition pool” for swim meets, directing team practices and recreational swimmers to training pool. It sits empty every day, unless there is a meet.
The Olympic teams could have used the competition pool with NO disruption to the schedules of the various teams that currently practice at GAC. Hard to believe that the same would occur at TAC.
One of my least favorite pools and facilities. Growing up a swimmer in NC you’re there 3-4 times a year. The locker rooms are still a complete nightmare, hopefully that’s top of the list for renovations before the meet.
That said, if you’re going to go anywhere on the east coast with an outdoor and an indoor 50m pool, your options are limited, so a pretty good choice.
It is a training camp, not a meet.
Jonah Turner. The man is Midas. Anything he touches turns to gold.
Finally, a chance for Jonah to be named to the Olympic coaching staff where he belongs
What a dream opportunity for the TAC swimmers? TAC has the best training facilities in all of North Carolina and possibly the east coast. It also pays to have your head coach on the USA Swimming coaching staff. I’m very excited.
Things are not always as they seem.
Any way the public can view a practice or two?
They usually have a designated open practice times.
Maybe this will entice them to finally clean up the gross locker rooms and all the other maintenance they’ve ignored for years