They're doing U.S. Olympic swim trials at Lucas Oil?

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A swimming pool in … an NFL stadium? Welcome to U.S. Olympic trials

In a bold ploy to expand the reach of swimming, the 70,000-seat home of the Indianapolis Colts has been transformed from a football field into the world’s biggest aquatic arena.

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The temporary pools came from northern Italy. The two million gallons of water came from a fire hydrant on South Capitol Ave., via 6,000 feet of piping that snakes through an NFL stadium. The swimmers will come from all over the United States, and step onstage near what’s usually the 45-yard line. And from June 15-23 in Indianapolis, they’ll take part in a grand, unprecedented experiment — all while trying to qualify for the Olympics.

It’s “crazy,” Bobby Finke, a 2021 gold medalist, said of the plan for this year’s U.S. Olympic swimming trials — crazy in a good way.

“It’s wild,” and “bananas,” USA Swimming chief commercial officer Shana Ferguson told Yahoo Sports last month as she surveyed the project from inside Lucas Oil Stadium.

The 70,000-seat home of the Indianapolis Colts, over the past month, has been transformed from a football field into the world’s biggest aquatic arena.

It’s a bold, grandiose ploy to expand the reach and scale of swimming, and its execution, Ferguson says, revolved around one core question: “How in the heck are we gonna put swimming pools in a football stadium?”

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