New UBC Pool Site - 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships

Ottawa, ON - Construction begins this month on a new University of British Columbia pool facility, that will be the site of the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

The outdoor pool will be a ten-lane, 50-meter pool will replace the current 55-yard, six-lane outdoor pool that was originally built for the 1954 British Empire Games. The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships (Pan Pacs) will be held from August 17 to 20, 2006 and mark the first major international competition to be held at the facility. In addition to 1,000 participants, officials and coaching staff, the event will draw 8,000 spectators and over 1.5 million viewers around the world through its international broadcast reach. Following Pan Pacs, UBC will use the pool to serve its students and residents of UBC’s emerging University Town community, and to support its world-class varsity swim program.

This will be the first major international swimming competition to be held on Canada’s west coast since the Commonwealth Games in 1994. Over 400 of the world’s top swimmers will be in attendance. Canadian Olympians and 2005 World Championship medalists Rick Say, Brent Hayden, and Brittany Reimer will join international stars such as USA’s Michael Phelps, Amanda Beard as well as Australia’s Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.

‘The new UBC Pool represents a very important legacy for Canadian swimming, states Dan Thompson, President, SNC. ‘The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships will provide us with an exceptional opportunity to enhance our competitiveness and generate greater support for our athletes.’

The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships is renowned as one of the most exciting competitive swimming events in the world. Canada is a founding member among four charter nations, including Australia, Japan and the United States, which launched this competition in 1983 to rival competitions in the European nations.

"This new outdoor pool will support our exceptional varsity swimming program, and have a positive and lasting impact on our community and the province as a premier recreation and performance centre, "says Brian Sullivan, Vice President, Students, UBC. "We look forward to working with Swimming Canada to inaugurate this facility and create a highly successful Pan Pacific Games that advances Canada's competitive swim program."