2025 Wrapped: The Pools
- Patrick W. Brundage
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
1 February 2026
I tackled the easiest question - where geographically did I swim in 2025? - in my last post and I'm punting the hard thinking - what did I learn from 2025? - for my third post, but this one's not that easy either.
I swam in 77 different pools in 2025 and two bodies of water (off the coast of Crete and near Zug): what were my favorite pools of 2025?
One way to answer this is by understanding where I kept going back to, again, and again, and again. There's a clear winner - fully 30% of my days swum in 2025 (65 days to be exact) had me coming back to one of the most iconic pools in the world, the London Aquatics Centre (LAC).
As I have said to other swimmers in other forums, London is an awesome town for swimmers. The number of publicly accessible pools is mind boggling. The array of historic pools that have been lovingly restored is inspiring. The opening hours with most pools having dedicated lap lanes large portions of the day is impressive. Access to pools is not an excuse not to swim here.
But, London also has a lot of people ... and the UK has an exceptional swimming tradition, so there are a lot of swimmers ... which means that most of these many, many pools are busy most of the times I can get to them (typically early mornings) ... making them good for a swim, but sub-optimal for a workout.
Beyond just being one of the finest racing tanks and aquatic "stadiums" on earth, the London Aquatics Centre stands out as an excellent place to do a solo workout. It certainly does get a steady stream of swimmers, but I almost always found it balanced enough to still be able to mostly do the sets I want to do. I believe there are three reasons, a couple structural and one psychological:
The tank itself: Ten long course lanes just opens up gobs of space for everyone to spread out.
East London locale: While the LAC is uber-accessible by public transit, for pre-workday swims, I doubt many people (unlike crazy yours truly) who don't live towards the east side of London make the trek out there. Probably some folks from central London will pop out and back, but I think the pre-dawn catchment area is limited when compared to central London pools like the Marshall Street or Oasis Leisure Centres. It takes a bit of extra time and effort, so I think that holds the crowds down.
It's intimidating: I find the pool and the architecture nothing but inspiring, but I do think the constant three-meter depth, the grandeur and scale of the whole thing scares away some folks. I don't think it should, but I do think it does. Whereas when I went to the 50 meter London Fields Lido (my third favorite long course pool in town), I find a more typical 8-12 swimmers per lane (vs. 4-6 at LAC).
My second most frequented pool, naturally, was the home to my Barnet Copthall Masters Team, the leisure centre with the same name, with 46 days swum here:
While this pool is better than your average London leisure centre, what makes it a treat are the people. From the moment I tried my very first "practice practice" back in August of 2023 and was so warmly welcomed by Coach Ian and now teammate and friend Cate Jackson, this team has been the nexus of my social life. Yes, the workouts are awesome thanks to Ian and, when he's not there, Coach Adam, but it's the chats on the pool deck, the long Saturday breakfasts, the camaraderie at competitions (and kicking ass on relays), the social events, learning more about the interesting lives my teammates lead, and so much more about this welcoming group of people that keeps me coming back.
Coming in a distant third with 7 days swum here, in terms of pools frequented (but not a new one for 2025) is the always excellent Hallenbad Oerlikon, not too far from the Zurich airport, a frequent business travel airport for me when I go visit clients, part of my European work team and my wife's cousin.
Top 10 New Pools in 2025
There are far more than 10 cool pools in the nearly 80 new pools I got to in 2025. But, clearly, I am a sucker for world class, long course pools, whether I race in them long course or short course. It's hard to rank these precisely, but here's my directional ranking, each linked to a longer blog post:
Honorable Mention
Because I had nothing but 50 meter pools in the list above, my favorite fixed-length 25 meter pool is the Complexo de Piscinas Municipais de Silves just inland from the Algarve coast in southern Portugal.
2025 was an exceptionally fun and adventurous year for swimming ... I have my eyes on some pools for 2026 to rival this list!
