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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The DMV has more swim teams per capita than any other metro area. There may not be as many outdoor pools as there are in places like Florida or California, but that's because the weather and environment make that difficult. DC gets very cold in winter, which jeopardizes the water lines that go into pools to keep them continuously filled. It has 2 leaf, pollen, and dirt filled seasons in spring and fall, which means not just more chemical cleaning but also more manual cleaning.

So:
1) the idea that DC area kids are deprived of pool time seems at odds with the fact that there are more swim team kids in the DC area than any other metro area. To take this even further-- they aren't just on swim teams, they are absolutely dominating. NCAP has more swimmers awarded swim scholarships than any other team in the US. The only 2 true swim celebrities are Phelps and Ledecky. This area is not deprived of pools, they are just structured differently.

2) having mostly outdoor pools would actually limit swim time unless a "bubble" were constructed over them to keep them indoors 9-10 months per year, due to the repair costs that would come from trying to maintain a large outdoor pool in a 4 season climate with harsh weather.

You have to know very little about DC swim, and very little about pool maintenance, to think that racism is the most obvious reason for DC area pools being indoors.

Before you jump in and say only rich kids can afford swim teams, most of these swim teams have fee waivers for those unable to pay.  Face it, the DC area has pool privilege. [/quote]

Exactly. No one is saying there isn’t room for improvement and that even more pools would be better, but the pool situation here is so much better than where I grew up, where swim teams were for the kids in the wealthy suburbs and even lessons were hard to find if you did not belong to the YMCA.  I learned to swim in part because my aunt was a swim instructor and taught us.  Interestingly, even though our town and neighboring towns had no public pools, my high school had a pool and we had swimming for physical Ed in high school. I remember being blown away by all of my otherwise athletic classmates who did not know how to swim beyond a dog paddle.

Contrast that to Montgomery county, where I live now, where there are both indoor and outdoor county pools with pretty affordable swim lessons, you just need to register early.[/quote]

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