The LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games have proposed relocating the diving competitions to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena due to concerns about athlete safety and the budget.
In June of last year, it was announced that diving would be taking place in Exposition Park, the same place it was held at the 1932 Olympic Games. That plan, which also featured swimming being held in SoFi Stadium, was approved in March of this year.
Since then, World Aquatics “advised” LA28 that the pool does not meet the Olympic Diving standards due to athlete safety concerns of pool width and depth, orientation of the diving towers towards the sun, and inadequate clearance behind the towers.
The organizers also determined that the pool would require complete reconstruction to be allowed to host the Games, which they stated “cannot occur simultaneously with the LA Memorial Coliseum track construction projects.”
Today, the committee proposed relocating diving to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center claiming the move would “achieve up to $17.6 million in combined savings and revenue growth,” adding that the move also “addresses athlete safety concerns” while reducing complexities regarding the operations in the Exposition Park zone
There are a number of Olympic and Paralympic events being hosted in the zone. Track and field will be hosted at the LA Memorial Coliseum, badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, and wheelchair rugby will be held at the Galen Center, and flag football and lacrosse will be held in the Exposition Park Stadium.
The LA28 CEO, Reynold Hoover, stated “This presents a significant opportunity to deliver successful marquee events, with greater budget certainty, while also ensuring an exceptional competition venue for our Diving athletes, with their safety remaining our top priority.”
The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center opened in 1990 and sits adjacent to the Rose Bowl Stadium. The facility features two Olympic-size swimming pools, the diving well, a therapy pool, and dryland facilities, and it meets the Olympic Diving standards and will not need to be reconstructed.
If approved, this would be the 3rd facility to host Olympic diving competitions in the Los Angeles area with Exposition Park hosting the 1932 Games and the Uytengsu Aquatics Center at USC hosting the 1984 Olympics.
If the proposal gets approved, diving will only share the “Pasadena Zone” with soccer, which will play in the Rose Bowl Stadium.
The relocation proposal will be voted on at a later date.
I wonder how long it takes before the organizing committee realizes that the platform at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center has been condemned and would need to be rebuilt? That would need to happen pretty quickly because typically an international test event is conducted in the venue several months before the Olympics and I am pretty sure USA Diving would want to hold Olympic Trials there too. I hope they budgeted for that.
I looked at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center first on Google and then on Google Maps. I note a few situations that could be a problem. 1) the diving well is actually the deep end of one of the two 50 meter pools. 2)The is no spectator seating and the only clear area for such seating is across on the far side of the other 50 meter pool,
The club hosts many local age group championships and regional JO’s. For those, they set up bleachers just outside of the aquatic center fences, and those bleachers have good views to the pool and diving platforms.
They can put temporary flooring down over that half of the pool and put seating there.
They’ve built bleachers for spectators several times before. For both pools. Should not be an issue. But the arroyo is 10 degrees warmer during the summer and that will be an issue for everyone.
Have they built temporary bleachers before to support over 5,000 spectators?
Supposedly Paris had seating for 5000 and several sessions supposedly sold out and that is why I choose seating for 5000, could build seating for fewer spectators.
I am looking at the Google Maps as well and here is my guess of what they will do (Rose Bowl Aquatics Center – Google Maps):
But I do not know how they will do the 1 m diving if they do what I think will happen with regards to the spectators (suggestions for other ways). Based on some of the past Olympics you need space for 5000+ spectators.
Take down the temporary boards on the long sides of the pool. I am assuming that north is at the top of the screen so this would be the boards on east and west side of the pool.
On the east side all the… Read more »
The Olympics does not feature a 1 meter diving competition.
you can (fairly) easily build temporary seating over the pool.
Great venue!! The area is idyllic, by the San Gabriel foothills. It’s quite nice and the diving pool is even heated. Great choice!
I find the utterly clueless organizers to really be SAD!! I mean, the things listed above that are WRONG are so major, I’m finding it difficult to realize; THESE ARE ACTUALLY THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE.
DID YOU SAY THANK YOU YET?
Did they really not scope out proper depth and orientation for the Olympic Games? Seems like a rather big mistake
Luckily they have options as discussed so it’s not a massive issue in the end but yikes.
Always thought the 1932 pool was an odd choice given its shallow depth and lack of current diving facilities.
Is USC not an option? I know it’s closer to the main hub so it be more heavily trafficked, but they already have the platforms and the stands so no additions would be needed (unless the seating capacity is too small).
I was thinking Mission Viejo since they had a recent upgrade to the facility. Maybe they asked all 3 to submit bids and they are taking the best deal.
MV is 1.5 hour on a good day, or 2 hours with traffic, to Los Angeles. RBAC is a better choice.
Seating was added at USC for 1984, and removed after. There isn’t enough seating to meet WA minimums I think. IDK if USC has platforms that are wide enough to allow for synchro diving.
MV has even less seating.
Both will likely be hosts for national diving federations for staging camps and training. Those two facilities, along with plenty of others around SoCal will be hosts for water polo, artistic swimming, and pool swimming staging camps and training zones. For aquatics, there probably isn’t a better location in the world to host an Olympics, with all the infrastructure that SoCal has for staging, training, air travel, and lodging.
There’s probably more $ and less hassle in hosting… Read more »
Yeah there were temporary bleachers in 1984. I’ve mentioned that a girl I knew from USC was doing the ticket taking and allowed me to sneak in. That wouldn’t have been possible without the temporary bleachers and all the chaos involved.
I remember seeing Louganis win gold on the final Sunday. The other American diver had serious facial injuries years earlier. Something like that. I think he medaled also.
Anyway, this move makes perfect sense to me. During the early ’80s I remember discussion that Exposition Park was no longer viable for swimming or diving. How had it improved in 45 years? I thought perhaps there was renovation I had missed.
The diver with the facial injuries was, I think, Bruce Kimball. He had been in a serious car accident in 1981.
Bruce Kimball was the diver
“with serious facial injuries.”