Just add water: delivering vital resource for U.S. Olympic swimming trials

In 2022, when Indianapolis won the bid to host the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for swimming, Citizens Energy Group developed a plan to provide 2 million gallons of water for the event.

The recent nine-day competition was held in Lucas Oil Stadium, which was transformed from a football stadium that holds 63,000 people to a swimming venue with two Olympic-sized pools, each with a capacity of one million gallons of water.

Citizens Energy Group flushed a nearby hydrant and connected disinfected hoses to fill the pools. (Pictured above, workers in Indianapolis constructs a stadium pool for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for swimming.)

“It’s the most understated method of delivering water to a national event that I could have imagined,” said Benjamin Easley, coordinator of corporate & public affairs for Citizens Energy Group. “There is a teal hydrant outside the stadium on Capitol Avenue, and the vendor had a special kind of scaffolding to receive the water on the inside. From the outside, it was just a hose running up the stairs and through the doors into the arena. It was actually pretty easy.”

The hoses spanned about 400 feet from the hydrant to the connection point in the venue. The water was pumped to deliver 1,400 gallons per minute, filling each pool in less than 14 hours. Once in the pool, a vendor treated the water to competition requirements. After the event, the water was pumped to Citizen Energy Group’s wastewater treatment plant, where it was treated and returned to the White River.

Citizens Energy Group, which serves about 900,000 people in the Indianapolis area, explains the process in this video.

“There was never any question that we would be able to supply the amount of water needed,” Easley said. “There were only 2 million gallons required for this event, and our daily output is about 127 million gallons, so with any kind of planning, this was very much something that we could accommodate.

“We just delivered the standard drinking water that we would make available to any of our customers or businesses across the city, in the same way,” Easley added.

There must have been something in the water, because six of the 48 athletes that comprise the swim team that will compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris are from Indiana, the most from any state. All the athletes performed very well as they broke two world records, three American records and three championship records throughout the course of the event.

Citizens Energy Group has used this moment in the spotlight to deliver valuable conservation messaging.

“We provided 2 million gallons for this event, but did you know our Central Indiana region uses 100 million gallons of water per day in the summer on lawn irrigation?” Easley said. “We want our customers to realize the scope of lawn irrigation, and that being strategic about watering your lawn is a really easy way to save on your water bill.”