High-altitude Olympic pool becomes world’s top swimming base

ERZURUM

The eastern province of Erzurum, which does not have a coastline, is on its way to becoming the world’s top swimming base thanks to its high-altitude Olympic pool, as the national teams of many countries train in the city.

Lately, Erzurum has started to become the center of attention in swimming as well, after many different sports branches such as football, skiing, athletics, wrestling, taekwondo, boxing and ice sports. The city, which has one of Europe’s few high-altitude fully Olympic swimming pools, has become the top choice of local and foreign teams.

Erzurum Olympic Swimming Pool, where many teams line up for swimming camps at the high-altitude camping point, currently hosts Lithuania and Türkiye’s national team athletes.

The swimming pool, built at an altitude of 2,000 meters just behind the Ski Jumping Tower in the central Yenişehir district, consists of 10 lanes. The pool also has a fitness center and a running track that allows athletes to exercise and warm up.

Stating that they entered their training camp in Erzurum on May 21 and the camp will end on June 12, Mersin TOHM Swimming Head Coach Volkan Burak Tuncil said this is the second time the team has come to Erzurum for the camp this season, and the sixth time in total.

“From here on, our athletes selected for the national team will compete in the European Youth Championship, European U 23 Championship, EYOF, Comen Cup, and international competitions in the youth and stars categories,” Tuncil said.

“We can say that Erzurum is taking rapid steps towards becoming the best swimming base in the world. The top swimmers in the entire world prefer this place. After returning to our city, our athletes generally perform much better in races.”

Emphasizing that they also came to Erzurum to prepare for the European championship, Lithuanian Swimming National Team Coach Kestutis Stseponavicius said their team consisting of five female and six male athletes have been training in Erzurum for three weeks.

Stseponavicius added that they prefer Erzurum because of its high altitude, locals’ warm demeanor and the good training environment.

Previously, Erzurum Olympic Swimming Pool hosted athletes from 50 countries such as Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Greece, Ukraine, Brazil, Lithuania as well as the National Team and many local teams.