On 07 Jul 2005 15:47:53 GMT, Adrian wrote:

Nick Cooper ) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying :

As a nation we are desperately short of world-class sport facilities,
not just for holding events, but for training. It's five weeks from
the Commonwealth Games trials, and British swimmers are having to fly
out to Slovenia, because there aren't enough decent places to train
here, FFS! There are only twenty 50-metre swimming pools on nineteen
sites in the entire country - Berlin alone has more than that.
Australia had 1,600 in total, 45 of which are full Olympic standard.

Why do we need to host the Olympics in order to build more swimming pools?

And wouldn't it make more sense if we were putting more facilities in to
spread 'em about a bit rather than cram 'em all in one corner of one city
in one corner of the country?

I can't speak for other sports, but certainly in population terms
London is not an illogical choice for the new Aquatic Centre. The
existing pools - at least the ones that are open to the public - are
fairly evenly spread across England & Scotland, with the only real gap
being the south coast and Birmingham, although there is a pool in
Coventry. London only has Ealing and Crystal Palace, which aren't
really _in_ London. Considering the population of London and the
surrounding commuter towns, even to maintain the average balance
across the country, the capital should have four 50m pools.
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk