Absence National – By Neto Baptiste
Absence National Pool Impeding
National swimming coach, Wayne Mitchell, believes the absence of a national aquatic centre has been a major contributor to dwindling numbers.
Mitchell said that although the country continues to perform well at regional meets due to its more seasoned athletes, there has been a dip in the number of new swimmers coming to the fore.
“That’s one of the reasons why the numbers are not growing. It’s because we just don’t have another pool. We can’t grow our learn-to-swim program because we need the lanes. We need the pool for conditioning these kids so they can get ready for these types of events so we’re in desperate need of another pool. It doesn’t need to be a 50-meter pool, guys. It really doesn’t. A 25-meter pool will do it, just make it 10 lanes and we’re good. Just give us that and you’ll see what we can put together,” he said.
“I’m not on the board in terms of that. I’m not on the board at the federation or anything but as a coach, I can tell you that’s all that’s needed to produce more swimmers is one more pool in Antigua,” he added.
In September of 2025, Minister of Sports Hon. Daryll Matthew, announced that government and the Antigua and Barbuda Swimming Federation (ABSF) had reached a deal regarding the construction of an aquatic centre. He revealed that the intended facility in Tomlinson’s would become a scaled down version while the substantial will become part of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus.
Matthew, who was on hand at the VC Bird International Airport to welcome home the successful team, said plans are progressing rapidly where both facilities are concerned.
“The public may recall that the arrangement that was reached was one where we will actually end up having two facilities: going from zero to two facilities, where the build-out that will take place and is now about to commence at The UWI Five Islands Campus – a proper Olympic-sized aquatic facility has been incorporated into that design and that has been approved. However, there’s still need for a secondary facility that is worthy of having national competitions, inter-school competitions and so forth, and that is a facility that will be built on Tomlinson’s,” he said.
“We are in the final stages of getting the drawings done and we’ll proceed full speed ahead once those drawings are finished. I would personally like to go on record and thank the swimming federation for the continued dialogue that they’ve been having with us and I’m quite certain that when that facility is complete, we’ll continue to see even greater success from our swimmers,” the minister added.
In addition to the aquatic centre, the UWI facility will also house an indoor multi-sports facility and a track and field facility.
In December of 2022, government broke ground at the site for the proposed aquatic centre in Tomlinson’s that would have originally housed a 25-meter pool, dressing rooms, stands and other amenities. The federation, under the leadership of Edith Clashing, who was elected in March of 2023, renegotiated for a 50-meter pool and a 25-meter warm-up pool.
