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At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Team USA Swimming won 31 medals, 12 of which were gold and 11 more total medals than the second closest country. What made the team great? Although swimming is an individual sport, it took all members of the team to do their best in order to achieve excellence. Much like Team USA, pool operators and the environmental health professionals that inspect pools need to work together to ensure that pools and related products and equipment are working properly.
A Timely Topic
One of the many positives that emerged from Team USA Swimming’s monumental success was an increased interest in swimming nationwide with more and more families visiting their local community pool. In late 2008, USA Swimming--the national sanctioning body for the sport--predicted that it would enjoy its largest-single year membership boost. While this increase in attendance is great news for local and community pools, it also highlights the importance of providing a safe environment for patrons to enjoy recreational water activities.
In addition, recreational water-facility safety has become a hot-button issue. Since the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act was signed into law in December 2008, pool operators have focused much of their efforts to ensure they are in compliance with the new law. Designed to prevent death or serious injury from drain entrapments in pools and spas, the law was named after Virginia Graeme Baker, the 7-year-old granddaughter of former Secretary of State, Jim Baker. She drowned in 2002 after being trapped by the suction force of a pool drain.