INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The first-ever nationally-sanctioned community swim team competition will be making waves at Indiana University’s Natatorium this week.

USA Swimming has teamed up with Indy Parks and Recreation to host the National Parks and Recreation Championships, a four-day swimming competition for the country’s community swim clubs.

Swimmers 11 and older from Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and more will compete at the “much-anticipated” meet ahead of the U.S. Olympic swim trials starting Saturday.

Joel Shinofield, the managing director of sport development for USA Swimming, says the competition doesn’t only fuel excitement for the U.S. Olympic swim trials, but gives young swimmers the chance to experience the sport in an Olympic-sized pool.

“Our goal is always to grow the sport of swimming, and the National Parks and Recreation Championships will increase opportunities and access to the sport and the excitement of competing on a national level,” Shinfield said.

The competition will include “butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley” events for varying age groups. Below is a list of warm-up and event times for the four-day competition:

• Wednesday Timed Finals: 4 – 5:45 p.m. warm-up; 6 p.m. event kickoff
• Thursday and Friday Prelims/Finals: 8 a.m. prelim warm-up; 9 a.m. event kickoff; 5 p.m. finals warm-up; 6 p.m. event kickoff
• Saturday Timed Finals: 8 a.m. warm-up; 9 a.m. event kickoff

This meeting will be the first USA Swimming-sanctioned national competition for community swim teams. Jordan Elder, Indy Parks and Recreation’s senior manager of aquatics, says the competition “bridges the gap” for the community to get involved in swimming.

“We have worked effortlessly over the past year to get our club ready to compete at this level and are thrilled to be a part of bringing this national event to life right here in Indianapolis,” Elder said. “By creating an event of this caliber catered toward parks and community swim clubs, we bridge the gap for our community to see that they too can get involved in this wonderful sport that is swimming.” 

The event is free to the public, but volunteers are still needed for the competition. Those interested can register here.

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