Anchorage finds place among top swim cities in the US

Scott O'Brien, an aquatics superintendent for the city of Anchorage, admits he was taken aback when he looked at a list of the top 50 swim cities in the United States and saw Anchorage in 18th place.

"I'm a Florida boy," he said. "It did surprise me a little bit, but the more I thought about it, we do have quite a few people who want to learn because of all the fishing and all the outdoor recreation things we do."

The top-50 list was compiled by Speedo, with help from USA Swimming. Cities larger than 250,000 were ranked based on a variety of categories including the number of USA Swimming members and swim clubs, the number of pools open to the public, the growth of swim teams and the number of top-level swimmers.

Topping the list is the San Jose/Santa Clara area, one of 10 California cities that made the top 50.

O'Brien, one of two aquatics superintendents for the Parks and Recreation Department and a swim coach for the Aurora Swim Club and Dimond High, thinks Anchorage's learn-to-swim programs — and the high retention numbers in those programs — gave the city a big bump in the rankings.

"With all the high drowning rates in Alaska, a lot of parents want to get their kids water-safe," he said. "We're able to get kids in there and maintain them."

Enough people use the Dimond pool for a staff of eight to nine lifeguards, O'Brien said.

Dimond's learn-to-swim program draws about 200 kids per month. About 80 to 85 percent stay with the program, "so every month we get between 15 to 20 new kids a month," O'Brien said.

It's not unusual to see a mom or dad swim laps at one end of a pool while their child takes lessons at the other end, he said.

Dimond, East, Bartlett and Chugiak high school all offer lap swimming to the public, as do Alaska Pacific University and UAA — O'Brien came to Anchorage 24 years ago as a college swimmer back when UAA had a swim team. Lap swimming is also available at the YMCA, and there's a pool at JBER for military members and their families.

O'Brien said he doesn't know how many swimmers there are in Anchorage but it's likely the number are in the thousands.

The city has four swim clubs — Aurora, the Northern Lights Swim Club, the YMCA and the Knik Swim Club — that draw 400 to 500 competitive age-group swimmers, he said. And the swim teams at Anchorage's eight public high school draw a couple of hundred more swimmers who aren't involved with club swimming.

There's another hundred or so home-schooled students who fulfill their P.E. requirements by swimming twice a week at either Dimond or East, O'Brien said.

And besides the learn-to-swim programs for younger kids and masters programs for older swimmers, the all-woman Gold Nugget Triathlon inspires hundreds of women to get in a pool.

"Right before the Gold Nugget, we have a bunch of ladies showing up for our evening lap swims," O'Brien said.

In the last month or two, swim programs saw an increase in participation thanks to the Olympics. "Every four years we get a big push," O'Brien said.

Read the full list here.