What better represent summer than seeing kids swimming, whether it’s at their local pool or at the beach. Plus, kids never seem to tire of it. My daughter and her friends can spend hours and hours in a pool, only coming out to eat, use the restroom, or if we forbid them from going back in. However, swimming is more than just a recreational pastime or a means of full-body exercise. When we used to take our daughter for lessons at a community pool or at a sports center, several of the time slots were blocked out for swimming clubs. Now I know why…
50 Top Swimming Cities
USA Swimming has just released a list of the 50 Top Swim Cities, presented by Speedo. Apparently, the SF Bay Area is quite the hot spot for the sport of competitive swimming. The San Jose to Santa Clara area of California ranked at number two while the east bay of San Francisco to Oakland ranked at number five. Did you know that San Jose to Santa Clara owns the most USA Swimming members per 1,000 people, has the largest multicultural make-up of any region, and that legends Mark Spitz and Donna de Varona grew up in the area? Did you know that San Francisco to Oakland owns the biggest collection of U.S. Masters (adult) swimmers and is also home to Olympic Gold Medalists Natalie Coughlin and Nathan Adrian, among many others?
Here are some more facts about the top 10 swim cities:
Here’s the full list:
1. Ann Arbor, MI
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
3. Raleigh-Durham, NC
4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
6. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
7. Madison, WI
8. Austin-Round Rock, TX
9. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
10. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN
11. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
12. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
13. Boulder, CO
14. Trenton-Ewing, NJ
15. Colorado Springs, CO
16. Anchorage, AK
17. Minneapolis-St Paul, MN
18. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
19. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
20. Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, CA
21. Lexington-Fayette, KY
22. Lincoln, NE
23. Richmond, VA
24. Denver-Aurora, CO
25. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC
26. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
27. Tallahassee, FL
28. Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
29. Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
30. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
31. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
32. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA
33. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI
34. Provo-Orem, UT
35. Reno-Sparks, NV
36. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
37. New Haven-Milford, CT
38. Albuquerque, NM
39. Columbus, OH
40. Baltimore-Towson, MD
41. Pittsburgh, PA
42. Tucson, AZ
43. Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA
44. Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN
45. Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, FL
46. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY
47. Fort Wayne, IN
48. South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI
49. Rochester, NY
50. Salt Lake City, UT
Do you live in a top swimming city?
12 comments
We are not on the list! Bummer.
We’re (kinda) on the list! This is really interesting.
The closest to me is Lexington, Ky. I really thought Knoxville would be on it, though. 🙂
Raleigh isn’t far from me and it’s on the top several of the list. Love that a Michigan school is producing great swim athletes too.
Holy moly Indy made the top 10! Honestly I didn’t know there were a lot of swimmers here.
I’m surprised there are not more FL cities.
We’re not on the list. But there is plenty of good places to swim around here.
Not on the list, but not too far away either.
I’m in Iowa, so not too close, but Illinois!
Yay, my city is included! hahahaha
Ours is not. And I have to say I’m surprised that some of these are in states where it’s winter longer than it is summer (yah I know about those new-fangled indoor swimming facilities 😉 but still…)
I think it’s funny how they lumped together Chicago, Naperville, Joliet, IL. That’s our area. My kids have gone swimming twice so far this summer at the neighbor’s. We are planning on going to the water park in our town next week.
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