Karen Crouse, a reporter from the New York Times is well-known for her sports articles, especially the ones about swimming. Another accomplishment she made was publishing her first book, about raising Olympians in a small town in Vermont. In an interview, she talked about swimming while in college and how it helped her career as a sports journalist today.
Crouse believes that swimming taught her to be more self-disciplined and resilient compared to her non-swimming peers. It developed great time-management skills and increases productivity every day. When it comes to the quality of her work, she thinks that her swimming background allows her to write articles that are more empathic and experienced which her readers like.
Swimming can be a bit challenging, to begin with, but in order for journalists to release tension, stress, and increase productivity, starting a new hobby such as swimming can be a good alternative. We have listed down interesting facts that sports journalists need to know about swimming pools.
- Titanic has a huge swimming pool
Titanic was known to be the most luxurious ocean liner during her time. It has a huge swimming pool for first class passengers located on the Middle Deck.
- Oceanic is the first to have a heated swimming pool
Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic is the first to have a heated swimming pool on board. The pool is 30 feet long and is available to first class passengers only.
- Indoor and outdoor pools in The White House
An indoor pool was built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. It was intentionally built for the president to continue his water therapy due to polio during his term. It was closed in 1970 by President Nixon. But in 1975, President Gerald Ford ordered to have an outdoor pool which leads to a tunnel that the first family can access without being spotted by the media.
- How big is an Olympic-sized pool
An Olympic-sized swimming pool can hold up to 660,000 gallons of water. It is 6 feet deep, with approximately 25 meters wide and 50 meters long.
- The largest swimming pool in the world
According to the Guinness World Records, the largest swimming pool in the world is the Orthlieb pool in Morocco. It is 480 meters long and 75 meters wide.
- Swimming pools need to be shocked
Pool shocking is a process to keep the pool water safe and clean. Otherwise known as super chlorination, pool shocking destroys the buildup of chloramines. Chloramines are formed when oil, sweat, and urine, is mixed with ammonia, which results in irritation in the eyes, skin, and the respiratory system.
Pool shocking is best done at night. In the morning, the sunlight tends to burn unstabilized chlorine, thus making the process ineffective. So how long to wait to swim after shocking pool? The swimming pool is ready to use eight hours after pool shocking.
- The oldest public bath
The “great bath” existed in Mohenjo-Daro more than 5000 years ago. It measures 7 meters wide, 12 meters long and 2.4 meters deep. It was believed that the “great bath” not only functions as a public bath but also a venue for special religious functions.