{"id":429411,"date":"2020-04-29T07:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T14:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=429411"},"modified":"2020-05-24T12:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T19:03:48","slug":"swim-poll-of-the-week-68-favor-opening-swimming-pools-for-elite-swimmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swim-poll-of-the-week-68-favor-opening-swimming-pools-for-elite-swimmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim Poll of the Week: 68% Favor Opening Swimming Pools For Elite Swimmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Wednesday April 29, 2020, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products<\/a>. In our last poll, we wanted to know: Should elite swimmers be allowed access to safe training pool environments in light of the coronavirus shutdown?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, Australian coach\u00a0Dean Boxall<\/strong>, leader of the St. Peters Western squad highlighted by World Champs\u00a0Ariarne Titmus\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Mitch Larkin<\/strong>, voiced his opinion that elite swimmers should be allowed access to the pool “in the next two weeks” in order to have peak performance at the Olympic Games next year. If they are not in the pool until the end of this summer, then they will struggle to get to their top form in time for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

As of this writing for the swim poll, the Games are 451 days away.<\/p>\n

It is expected that in some parts of the world like Great Britain, national performance centers will be open before other public pools to give Britain’s Olympic medalist hopefuls an early start at safe training.<\/p>\n

The likes of\u00a0Katie Ledecky\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Lilly King<\/strong> in the United States are reported to be training in backyard pools in the United States, while coach\u00a0Bob Bowman<\/strong>\u00a0said today that his team in Arizona is getting \u201cvery comfortable now with \u2018I don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/a>\u00a0\u201d \u00a0One of his charges, 2012\u00a0Olympic 200m\u00a0freestyle champion\u00a0Allison Schmidt<\/strong>\u00a0is getting 45 minutes in the water three times a week at a local country club.<\/p>\n

Boxall had to close his St Peters Western program a month ago as Australia imposed lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the\u00a0International Olympic Committee<\/strong> and Tokyo 2020 organizers announced a year-long delay in staging the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Australia is well down the league of nations that suffered the worst of the pandemic since the spread of the virus emerged from Wuhan in China. To date, 6,647 Australians have contracted the virus, which has caused 74 deaths in the country according to official figures, compared to 819,175 Americans, among whom 45,343 have lost their lives.<\/p>\n

While wary of the threat posed by the pandemic, Boxall hopes that guidelines will soon be introduced to ensure elite swimming squad members can get back to pool training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be seen as someone who is not in touch with what is happening,\u201d he told reporter Laine Clark<\/strong> of The\u00a0Australian Associate Press (AAP)<\/em>. Dean Boxall added:<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it, people are dying. It is a terrible crisis. But you go to parks and you see stacks of people but we can\u2019t get elite swimmers to swim in a pool.\u00a0We want to get back in the water but we can\u2019t, we are hamstrung. I am not talking about the whole swimming community in Australia returning to pools, just the elite guys.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The longer Australia\u2019s elite swimmers spent out of the pool, the longer it would take for them to get back in shape, the coach said, adding:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to be in the water very soon, like the next two weeks, just to get the body back into a rhythm.\u00a0Usually if you have a month off, it takes you two months to get back into it \u2013 it\u2019s normally double.\u00a0If you call it (pool training return) in September it is going to be a struggle. If you call it in July, August, it is still difficult \u2013 they need to get back in the water.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So for the swim poll, the question remains: Should elite swimmers be allowed access to safe training pool environments in light of the coronavirus shutdown?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We asked for the swim poll and you answered with\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n