The Queensland Government announced that the nation of Australia will see a new National Aquatic Centre (NAC) built in Spring Hill to host aquatic events for the 2032 Olympic Games.
The NAC will see Centenary Pool in Spring Hill upgraded and complemented by a new main and secondary stadium featuring two large indoor pools that would act as a national base to host the four peak aquatic sports – swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming.
This development is a deviation from the original plan of constructing a temporary pool to host the events in Brisbane. However, as we reported in January, the heads of Swimming Australia, Diving Australia, Water Polo Australia, and Artistic Swimming Australia submitted a proposal to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority petitioning for a permanent pool that could be utilized well after the Games were over.
Per Swimming Australia’s release, the new NAC will include the following:
- three new pools, including two large indoor pools (50m and 65m) that would act as a national base to support multiple aquatic sports;
- one indoor dive tower;
- one new outdoor pool with functionality to support multiple aquatic sports;
- one 27m outdoor tower for both diving and high diving;
- separate high performance and community gyms and amenities including a dedicated diving dry land;
- administration and retail spaces;
- sports medicine treatment rooms;
- permanent seating capacity of 8,800 and more than 25,000 in Games mode
Swimming Australia CEO Rob Woodhouse said, “Today we celebrate the most significant investment ever in aquatic sports in Australia. As well as the critically important community and health benefits for all Australians, the NAC will set our aquatic sports up for ongoing success for the next 50 years beyond the 2032 Games.”
“Our magnificent Paralympians and Olympians will inspire us all through their achievements at the NAC in 2032 and for decades after. Thank you to the Queensland Government for understanding the real legacy the NAC will provide for all Australians.
“The national aquatic sports will work hard with the appointed experts to ensure that the NAC will truly deliver both for the community and across all levels of our sports, from learning to swim to high performance.”
Olympic champion Cam McEvoy stated, “The NAC is a venue that will ignite the Olympic and Paralympic flame for the next generation of athletes.”
“As a six-year-old I stood on the blocks at Sydney Olympic Park and realised there was so much more to swimming than just my own local pool. I watched the Olympics on TV, but that was nothing compared to when I set foot inside the actual venue that held the Games. It became much more real than a TV screen. That’s what I’m excited about with the National Aquatics Centre – all of the dreams it will ignite.
“Not only that but it will be a venue that has the capacity to produce those dreams as it will be decked out in state of the art high performance technology for each sport to use and train alongside each other.
“I can’t think of any other place to have something like this than in South-East Queensland. If South-East Queensland was a country we would have finished equal third on the swimming medal tally at the Paris Olympic Games. The NAC only stands to solidify this level of achievement for future generations to come!”
Mollie O’Callaghan has posted on instagram about her struggles in the last few months. Despite her rapid recovery from a knee injury in 2023 things aren’t going as smoothly this time. Mollie says “I’m constantly hitting setbacks while trying to rehab and get my fitness back” and “it feels like one problem after another”.
She talks of “embracing the challenges, because that’s how you really learn about yourself”. Mollie is known for her dogged determination and hopefully things will turn around for her in the lead up to Singapore.
A lot of swimmers are on the hypermobility spectrum. I’m out of my depth here but it can happen with that and more generally with damage to our shockingly complex joints that it can just deteriorate no matter what you do. Wish her the best
So cool to see how excited the young age group swimmers got seeing the plans for this in their city (& for many of them, just down the road from school).
Can’t they make a new train station beside it, 1km walk is too far.
There are train tracks right outside.
Unsure of the parking situation. The Chandler aquatic centre is old (early 1980s) but does have a lot of parking.
The pool is less than a kilometre from Fortitude Valley train station and has a bus stop directly out the front. Won’t need parking and will be super quick to get to from central Brisbane.
Chandler was an absolute nightmare to get to on public transport or by driving. And Chandler parking was full just for trials even when tickets didn’t sell out.
Agree that public transport to Chandler is a problem. We could usually find a car park near the velodrome. Sometimes, back in the day, our swimmer was just cold, hungry and tired and just wanted to get back home quickly to eat and sleep before finals. Harder to do on public transport but then that is a first world problem.
Brisbane 2032 is actually going to be held in the 65m Extra Long Course Metres (ELCM) pool. Kaylee ran out of backstroke records to break so they made some new ones
Actually, ELCM is going to be Australia’s SCY. We’ll hold meets there and get all the world records because no one else swims it
That made me LAUGH. And lol, then we will get all defensive and upset when people try to tell us that it doesn’t count as a world record lol.
So 65m tank sounds to me like swimming and diving will be conducting in the same body of water, with either the starting block or the turn end of the course being a bulkhead. This does not seem like it’s appropriate for international competition. Am I maybe just reading this wrong?
Not sure why you got that impression. I know you think us Aussies are a bit slow, but I’m pretty sure they are going to build a pool that IS completely appropriate for international competition for the OLYMPICS.
Plus no one seems to question drop in pools.
What would give you that impression? They’re building three pools and only one of them is 65m. Why wouldn’t they use the purpose built 50m pool?
The 65m pool is probably not the competition pool.
Reading comprehension is HARD.
65m seems pretty obvious, 50m/2x25m training/warmup pool with movable bulkhead and diving pool, so up to 5m deep on the diving end.
50m pool which is clearly shown in the concept art is the competition pool.
They specifically mentioned in the presser that they were benchmarking the new facility vs Duna Arena, which they consider the best aquatic facility in the world currently.
Good news
Why 65 meters?