Helsinki Swimming Stadium

The Swimming Stadium in the summer 2006.

Helsinki Swimming Stadium is an outdoors swimming venue in Helsinki, Finland, located in the Eläintarha area to the northeast of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.

History

The Swimming Stadium was designed by architect Jorma Järvi in the Functionalist style prevalent during the 1930s. The swimming pool was built for the 1940 Olympic Games, which were then cancelled due to the Second World War; but then hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics.

Because of the war, the construction of the Swimming Stadium took a long time, and it was finally completed in 1947. In wartime, the finished pools were used to store herring and root vegetables.

According to the International Swimming Federation, the water temperature in the pool needs to be at least 22 °C, nowadays 27 °C. The machinery to heat the outdoor pool was ordered from abroad, and the ship transporting them was sunk immediately after the war broke out.

Current use

The Swimming Stadium is a popular refreshment place for citizens. It is open from the beginning of May to the end of September. It is a popular place, and in summertime it is visited by about 5000 swimmers every day. The Stadium has three pools: a 50 metre exercise swimming pool, a jumping pool and a children's pool, and a small, shallow, round wading pool for small children a little further away. The jumping pool has two 1 metre and two 3 metre high springboards, and a 1 metre plateau in front of the jumping tower. Use of the jumping tower is controlled and requires lifeguard supervision. The 1 and 3 metre springboards are almost always freely usable by customers. However, for example when swimming teams or clubs come to practice at the Stadium, the 3 metre springboard may be reserved for their use.

The area also has a water slide, a gym, a basketball field, a volleyball field, a table tennis table and a café. The gym is open all year round.

Outside normal opening times, the Stadium is used a practicing place for other aquatic sports, for example diving schools use the jumping pool as practice place.

The Swimming Stadium is also the scene for filming the popular Finnish TV Show Summeri.

In January 2009, the city of Helsinki initiated a discussion of keeping the Helsinki Swimming Stadium heated throughout the entire autumn and winter, in order to make it accessible for outdoor swimming during the entire year, in honour of the 90th anniversary of the Sports Bureau of Helsinki. However, this idea was abandoned as too expensive.

References

• 1952 Summer Olympics official report. pp. 47–9.

External links

• City of Helsinki Swimming Stadium