I was passing through Fort Lauderdale last weekend on my way home from a cruise. I saw the signs (all over town) for the International Swimming Hall of Fame, so I decided I’d swing by and check it out. What a dump! A bunch of dusty, old, sun-bleached displays of crap and my money was taken by an unshaven kid who was alternately selling a car over his cell phone and going outsidse to smoke a cigarette. A total embarassment to the great sport of swimming. And, my name wasn’t even in there!
If you ever get the urge to go there, don’t waste your money. I understand there may be a movement afoot to replace it.
I’ve been thru there a number of times, but not recently. I remember it was interesting like 5 years ago, but i haven’t checked it out since.
I remember that i absolutley hated that pool. Florida high school states have been held there the last two years, everything about that pool just seemed weird and slow. Abit off topic, but i’d have to say my favorite pool in florida when i was swimming was the orlando YMCA with the retractable roof, i (and a lot of my friends) always seemed to swim better in that pool, even when not tapered.
Either wa, that whole place in Ft Luaderdale needs to be torn down and built anew.
Don’t remember it as being all that bad. Got to know Buck Dawson, one of the old forces behind the hall so I am probably biased. Y nationals have been held at that pool for a long time. I do kno wthey ar eloking to move due to a fight with the city over parking and taxes
I competed at YMCA Nationals there at ISHOF for my last three years of elegibility ('97-'99), and those three weeks of competition and perfect Florida April days have been some of the best of my life. I toured the actual Hall of Fame once, and was fairly impressed. The exibits covered the sport widely and in colorful detail. No, it didn’t and never will have the impressiveness of Cooperstown, but it is worthy of the sport, to be sure. The actual facility may be the greater treasure, as you can feel its storied past as you enter through the gates, and swim in its lanes. The best swimmers in the world have swam there countless times, many memorable races have been contested, and many world records have fallen. It is an excellent facility still, with two 50 meter pools in very good shape, and a large diving well with a 10 meter platform. No, the competition pool is no longer considered world-class. It is shallow at the far end, and it doesn’t have the state-of-the-art gutter systems of pools like Long Island and Sydney. Still, it is a very good facility, and yet its full value can only be appreciated by those who know and cherish the history of swimming. I for one will be very saddened to see it go, if it does indeed come to that.
Yes…and Natalie Coughlin (and I think Micahel Phelps too) set a World Reocrd in that pool! She was the first woman ever to break one minute in the 100 meter Backstroke. (Long Course meters)
Now…was that summer of '02 or '03? I must be getting old.
