Swimming in Sydney - The Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center

I've been staying in Sydney, Australia for about 6 days at the time of this writing and have only now made it to the the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center.  The Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center is at 458 Harris Street in Sydney. I'm staying about an 8 minute walk away at the Holiday Inn at 68 Harbour Street near Chinatown. The walk to and from feels safe. I've always been kind of reluctant to wonder from my hotel in unfamiliar cities because I have no idea about crime rates, good vs. bad parts of town, so I usually just stay close to my hotel so going here was perfect.

It is the peak of triathlon training season in Florida, United States so I had to be sure to get some swimming in during my 2 week trip.

The Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center is open from 6:00 AM to 8:45 PM during the week and from 6:00 AM to 8:45 PM on the weekends. The gym is a YMCA but don't expect your United States YMCA card to get you in, they won't accept it. I had to pay $6.20 AUD to get in.

The swim area alone is very impressive. There is a giant wade pool for kids and plenty of change areas both around the pool and in one of several locker rooms.  The pool has a 50m length. So for you newbies, hopefully you can swim this distance without having to grab the side of the pool to take a break. Some lower lanes were broken into 2 25m halves.  Each lane had a marker up to indicate Slow, Medium, or Fast speeds and the lanes are cycle swim at all times. Even though I consider myself a below average triathlon swimmer, I found myself swimming in the fast lane.

After getting in my laps and changing back into my clothes, I took a walk around. Among the things I saw in the center were  a small gift shop, a small inside/outside eating area with an excellent view of the Sydney skyline. The gym was broken down into two levels with the other level having a complete exercise area. The exercise area was fantastic with plenty of free weights, weight machines, and cardiovascular machines such as bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, etc. The exercise area was probably the most spacious workout area I have ever seen, very impressive.

Below are some shots of the center, the pool area and skyline from the outside eating area.