The Largest Venues In Olympic Swimming

In just a few years time, the United States will play host to the 2028 Olympic Games, with swimming being on the forefront of the program. In fact, the swimming portion of the competition will be contested in none other than SoFi Stadium — with a rigorous transformation from a football stadium to the largest swimming venue the Olympics will ever see.

With current renderings of the venue pitting the estimated capacity at around 40,000, SoFi Stadium will easily double the next largest competitive swimming venue in the history of the Summer Olympics. This begs the question: what have been the largest venues ever to play host to swimming at the Summer Olympics? Today, we’ll run through the 10 largest venues to date — along with some fun facts and their respective capacities.

*Note: this list includes both indoor and outdoor pools, with some pool venues also joint-hosting other aquatic sports (i.e., diving, water polo) — here, we use the capacity of the main competition pools.

T-1st: Berlin Olympic Swimming Stadium

Capacity: ~20,000

This venue welcomed nearly 150,000 attendees across the swimming competition at the Berlin 1936 Olympics and also played host to the 1978 World Aquatics Championships in West Berlin. The facility continues to serve as both a training and recreational facility to this day.

T-1st: Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto

Capacity: ~20,000

As host of the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics, this venue is part of the Foro Italico sports complex that takes inspiration from Roman architecture. The venue has since been revamped and expanded to host a multitude of aquatics competitions, including a number of European Aquatics Championships and both the 1994 and 2009 World Aquatics Championships.

3rd: Rio Olympics Aquatics Center

Capacity: ~18,000

The largest indoor facility on this list, the 2016 Rio Olympics saw over 14,000 spectators and 4,000 athletes and coaches across over a week of competition. Fast forward to today: the venue was recently dismantled and repurposed for multiple projects across Rio, including new swimming pools and even schools and other public facilities.

4th: London Aquatics Center

Capacity: ~17,500

Featuring a revolutionary wave-like roof, this venue is often nicknamed “the Stingray” for its beautiful glass window architecture. After hosting the 2012 Games, the venue has since hosted the 2016 European Championships, with most of the facility being revamped following its introduction to the public in 2014.

T-5th: Beijing National Aquatic Center

Capacity: ~17,000

Known colloquially as the “Water Cube,” this pool saw the most world records broken (25) in a single competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The venue has since been refurbished to include LED lights on its exterior, along with a full-scale interior waterpark and even retail stores to compliment a full tourist experience.

T-5th: Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center

Capacity: ~17,000

The pool for the 2000 Sydney Olympics featured multiple innovations, including underwater windows for enhanced viewing — and above all, an absolutely deafening and feverish crowd. The venue continues to host a variety of swimming competitions and events for local associations and schools, and it most recently hosted the 2022 edition of Duel in the Pool.

T-5th: Paris La Défense Arena

Capacity: ~17,000

An arena that has hosted anything from the likes of rugby competitions to live concerts, this multipurpose facility was recently converted to a pool — albeit one of the shallower pools in competitive Olympic swimming. Notably, this arena also retains the title as Europe’s largest indoor sports arena.

8th: McDonald’s Olympic Swim Stadium

Capacity: ~16,500

Now known as the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, this outdoor swimming facility sits on the University of South California campus and is home to the Trojan’s swimming and diving teams. The venue has since seen a variety of high-profile swimming and water polo competitions, including several NCAA and national championship events.

T-9th: Tokyo Aquatics Center

Capacity: ~15,000

Though the facility saw very little attendance due to restrictions during the pandemic, this venue could easily accommodate a large crowd. Tokyo plans to continue using the venue as a frequent location for junior, national, and international competitions — and will also open the aquatic center to the general public.

T-9th: Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Capacity: ~15,000

This venue is said to be one of the fastest pools ever built in the world, courtesy of ingenious advances in tile design and pool depth. After hosting the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the venue has been reconfigured to accommodate a number of multi-purpose courts and recreational facilities — and is a frequent host of NCAA meets on the college swimming calendar.

One Last Outlier…

Obviously, the Olympic Trials aren’t the Olympics, but Lucas Oil Stadium recently became the largest venue to ever host a swimming competition this past year at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials. A full century after Indianapolis first played host to the Olympic Trials, the turf field was completely transformed into a 2-million gallon pool facility — drawing over 250,000 fans over the span of the nine-day competition and nearly 21,000 attendees in one session alone (the most ever in attendance at a swimming competition).

And one more note on SoFi Stadium: remember how we said that it will play host to the largest crowd in Olympic swimming competition in 2028? Well, SoFi will also host Super Bowl LXI in 2027, along with the FIFA World Cup in 2026 — an incredible consecutive three years of sporting spectacles on the calendar.

With all this in mind — here’s to even bigger and more iconic stadiums as the sport of swimming continues to transcend all boundaries, engaging eager fans and audiences from all corners of the globe.