After running and riding in the Edmonton River Valley, my next most favorite place to be is Kinsman Sports Centre’s 50m Competition Swimming Pool. Edmonton has a ton of pools of all shapes and sizes.
Kinsmen Sports Centre was built for the Commonwealth Games in 1978. It has a 50m competition pool, two 25 m warm up pools, a dive tank and a shallow teach pool. The water in the 50m pool is cooler and is much nicer to swim in. The lanes are wide and hardly ever crowded. Between the 50m pool and the two 25m pools there is always lane swimming available. There is a great drop in Swim Training program, with a coach, held from 6 -7 am everyday and 9:30-10:30 MWF. Just pay admission to the facitlity and join in for a workout! On the grounds is the brand new outdoor pool Queen Elizabeth and Kinsmen Spray Park which has a 25m pool with zero depth entry and a spray park.
Another 50m pool is located at Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre on the west end, but not too far west. Check the schedule for lane swimming times. When we swim there, we go at 10 am as there is an aquafit class until 10 and it uses the whole width of the pool.
All the neighbourhood pools are 25m and have scheduled lane swim times. Some of the pools are warm, so if you do not like swimming in warm water, stick to the Kinsman Sports Centre. We recently swam at O’Leary Pool when the Water Polo Olympic Qualifiers were on at Kinsman and found the pool to be a really clean, friendly and sunny facility. Bonnie Doon Pool is showing its age. Hardisty Pool has just been renovated. Haven’t swum there yet as the lane swim times are not at times when I want to go.
Most pools have both drop in and registered classes, such as aquafit, aquabox and swim training. Most pools have kick boards, pull buoys and fins for the public to use. During public swims, there are various water toys available for kids to use. A combination of whirlpools, saunas and steam baths are in most locations also.
Check out the City of Edmonton website for locations, hours, admissions, schedules and classes.
I should mention too that most of the pool facilitates have weight rooms also. Kinsman, Commonwealth, Millwoods and Terwillegar are large facilities with weight rooms, gyms, tracks, courts etc. So if you want to do a multiple workout, head to one of these.
Grab your swim suit and head to a pool when visiting Edmonton!