Ontario's pool pinch has London aquatics clubs competing for space

When 15-year-old Luke Ybarra started playing water polo in London a year ago, he already had big goals to join the provincial team.

Having taken swimming lessons since he was a child and participating in a local swim team since he moved to London in 2019, Ybarra said he loves spending time in the water.

The problem? He doesn't always have access to pool time.

"Because of how many clubs we have in London and the small number of pools, it makes us have to go to smaller-size pools like at the YMCA, which for water polo specifically, is really hard to do because it's either too shallow or too small," Ybarra said, adding that London only has two deep 50 m pools.

"For water polo, you have to be treading water, jumping and doing all sorts of things in water," he explained. "If you're a six foot tall guy, you can hit your foot at the bottom or whack your hand when you're throwing the ball. It can really hurt or possibly break something."

Access to aquatics facilities is a challenge that athletes, recreational clubs and new swimmers across the province are facing.

A January report from the Aquatic Sport Council of Ontario found there is an "urgent need" for more and larger aquatics centres in the province as the population grows.

Most indoor 50 m pools in Ontario were constructed between 1970 and 2010, and only four were built after 2000, the report said. Large 50 m pools not only support competitive sports like water polo, diving and artistic swimming, but also recreational family swims, aquafit classes and drowning prevention workshops, it said.

As Canada's Summer McIntosh racks up world records, a shortage of pool facilities is raising concern that the country's next generation of athletes won't have a place to swim.

"Swimming is a life skill. No matter where you are in Canada, you'll find water so it's really important to be able to stay afloat and be safe," Middlesex Swimming head coach Mackenzie Salmon said.

"Without appropriate access to pools, the strain goes elsewhere, which in my opinion is arguably much worse when you have fire, police and other individuals responding to deaths that occur in open water," he said.

London's two 50 m pools are located at Western University and the Canada Games Aquatic Centre in White Hills. Since the university pool tends to prioritize student use, clubs say they are vying for time at the latter aquatic facility.

"It's a challenging process because the clubs and groups that have been accessing space for years have the most opportunity to continue to have that space," Forest City Water Polo head coach Allyson Watson said, adding that her club is only four years old.

"I don't actually think it's fair to take space away from them to give to other people, so I'm not arguing for that, I just think that there's not enough time and there's not enough pools in London to support the programs and clubs that want to use them," she said.

One of London's longstanding aquatics organizations is the Forest City Dive Club, whose athletes can only practice at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre because of its depth and diving boards.

"We always have in the back of our heads this acknowledgement that if we give up any pool time, we're not going to get it back," club board member Ian Kerr said. "Everyone holds on to every minute that they've got."

While neither club currently has a waitlist of participants, Kerr and Watson both said it is challenging to get new or recreational athletes enough time in the water, meaning that it may take them longer to reach a competitive level and the organizations more time to build membership.

"We have grown a lot, but we don't have the capacity to continue to grow because we just don't have enough pool time available," Watson said.

Not only are there not enough pools in London currently, but Salmon predicts more will close in the near future due to maintenance costs.

"All pools, just like anything else, will deteriorate and need to be fixed, unfortunately," he said, adding that he wants cities to think about building or upgrading pool infrastructure often and early.

"[Pools] don't get built in a day – just like Rome. It's not a simple process like it used to be, with all the different liabilities, time and materials," he said.

Both Kerr and Watson said they think London's next pool should be built with community and club needs in mind, including length, depth and access to other features such as dry-land training space.

"If we had other pools that could accommodate some of the other sports, then we'd have less overlap at the Canada Games Aquatics Centre," Kerr said. "I think it would be great if the city did some good engagement around what a new facility could look like."