A Cork swimming club in Cork is appealing for help to get an Olympic-size pool built.
Dolphin Swimming Club in Mayfield bought the pool worth €1.1 million from Birmingham City Council in the UK after it was used in the Commonwealth Games two years ago.
It's hoped the six-lane Olympic-size pool earmarked for Glanmire will pave the way for more hopefuls eager to emulate the success of medallists Daniel Wiffin and Mona McSharry.
Dolphin Swim Club Chairman Club Guiseppe Whelan told The Hard Shoulder it's an ongoing process.
"It arrived into Cork on May 10th this year on the back of four 40-foot trucks and it's been in storage since," he said.
"We've been in talks with Cork County Council and they very graciously offered five acres of land to us.
"We're in the process of looking to sign a lease on that and take it step-by-step to get this pool built".
'Travel to Limerick'
Mr Whelan said they've started a fundraising page to help pay for costs for the Olympic-size pool.
"We're looking to generate €100,000 for planning and design so we can actually get it to the next stage," he said.
"We have swimmers as young as 14 who are on the National Performance Pathway who have to leave their house at 4am and travel to Limerick and they don't get back into school until 10.30am.
"If we want swimmers of the standard of Mona McSharry or Daniel Wiffin coming out of Cork they need to have ready access to a swimming pool".
Aerial view of the Olympic Games pool of the Paris 2024 games. Image: LE PICTORIUM / AlamyMr Whelan said modular-based Olympic-size pools are the way to go.
"If anybody's paying attention to what's happening in Paris at the Olympic Games the swimming complex is inside a football stadium," he said.
"It's basically been put in place for the Olympic Games and will be dismantled after the Paralympic Games take place in a few weeks' time.
"This pool was a training pool, it's the full Olympic standard, and it wasn't being used after the Commonwealth Games.
"They came looking for a buyer and Swim Ireland contacted a number of clubs around the country".
'It can get built very quickly'
Mr Whelan said they looked to align with other clubs in the venture but it didn't happen.
"We managed to buy it, it's paid for and it's sitting in a warehouse in Cork," he said.
"You need a facility - the facility obviously costs a lot of money to build - and this pool then can get built very quickly inside this facility."
Mr Whelan said they're looking at several avenues to get the Olympic-size pool built.
"There's this wonderful system that the Irish Government have which is Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Funding," he said.
"You can get up to €50m from that if you have the right project; that [funding] happens to open in June and close in July.
"We applied for it anyway but the timing wasn't right for us in the sense that you have to own the land or have a lease of the land.
"We're still in the process of going through that."
Funding
Mr Whelan said while Government funding is available they still need a chunk of around €3m.
"For the right project the Government will support 70% of funding," he said.
"So if we assume for a minute that the pool will cost us €10m, that means I need to have €3m cash in the bank.
"We're not in the position to do that".
Mr Whelan added that all swimming clubs in Cork have long waiting lists to help children to learn how to swim.
People can give to the GoFundMe page here.
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