Contrary to the city’s release last week, the Rio de Janeiro Olympic pool may serve as an all-purpose sports arena after it fulfills its primary purpose in the summer of 2016, according to SporTV
The city opened up construction bids on the aquatic facility last week, and the winner will be expected to complete construction by early 2016 to allow for several test events before the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Although the original construction plan that we reported on last week called for a temporary facility that would be knocked down after the Olympics, the plan is now to consider keeping the facility for use as an multi-sport arena. The two 50-meter pools will be designed to for disassembly and reassembly so that the area can be repurposed for other athletic events, but could still serve as a swimming event center in the future if need be.
Rio de Janeiro has less of a need for a large-scale swimming facility as the city already boasts two aquatic centers – the Julio Delamare and the Maria Lenk, where Olympic diving events will be held – with enough spectator seating to host national and international events. The new Olympic center will hold 18,000 spectators, about 500 more than London’s Olympic facility.
Production on the new facility is still expected to cost around $218 million.