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London Aquatics Centre celebrates over 2.5 million visitors since opening to the public in 2014

The London Aquatics Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is celebrating its 3rd anniversary of being open to the public with an Open Day full of swimming and fitness activities on Saturday, 4th March.

More than 2.5 million people have visited the former Olympic venue since it opened its doors to the public in 2014. It has quickly established itself as a world-class sporting venue at the heart of its community. Visitor numbers continue to rise each year, and have grown by 47% since March 2016.

Over 14,000 people visit the Aquatics Centre on average each week, with school, club, regional and national meets throughout the year. The London Aquatics Centre demonstrates how the Olympic and Paralympic legacy is being fulfilled every day.

4,500 children and adults are learning the essential life-skill of swimming each week with the centre’s ‘Swim School’ programme, as well as learning to dive with the Tom Daley Diving Academy.

50 different local schools and clubs use the Aquatics Centre for their swimming lessons, enabling thousands more school children to learn to swim. The centre encourages  participation by everyone in its community with many different programmes such as family ‘Extreme Aqua Splash’ and ‘This Girl Can Swim’ sessions.

Voted by visitors to the London Olympic and Paralympic Games as the best venue of London 2012, the past three years have seen the London Aquatics Centre make its mark on the national and international stage, hosting a number of major sporting events including the FINA Diving World Series, National Paralympic Day, Invictus Games, the British Swimming Championships and the 2016 LEN European Aquatics Championships.

The London Aquatics Centre is also used as an elite training venue and is the training home of Olympic medallist Tom Daley.

Peter Bundey, Deputy Managing Director at GLL, the charitable social enterprise that operate the London Aquatics Centre under the Better brand, said: “The London Aquatics Centre is an inspiring and important legacy venue. Its remarkable attendance figures from both local communities and across the country demonstate the centre is helping more and more people stay active and healthy. This fantastic venue is also fulfilling its vital role as a national and international home for swimming and diving, with resident high performance aquatic programmes and major aquatic events.

“We are delighted to report that our partnership with the LLDC is showing that the Olympic legacy is alive and well at the London Aquatics Centre. We have record numbers of people of all ages and backgrounds learning to swim and dive, Olympic athletes such as Tom Daley using the facility as their training base and spectators coming to watch both local and major sporting events.”

Zaha Hadid Architects said, “The London Aquatics Centre was designed for its legacy to the city. With so many Londoners now using the centre to learn how to swim and dive, for competitive training and club events, for family and recreational swim sessions, as well as fitness and wellbeing classes, the Aquatics Centre is an excellent legacy of London 2012.”

To celebrate the anniversary, the London Aquatics Centre is holding an Open Day on Saturday, 4th March offering children and adults ‘Come Try Diving’ sessions, ‘Racing Starts Drop-ins’ and a swimming ‘Stroke Clinic Drop-in’, as well as activities away from the pool with Pilates and Dance Taster sessions available and fitness challenges with prizes for the winners. London Aquatics Centre gym members can also bring a buddy to train with for free on the day.

More information about the Open Day and the venue can be found on the website: www.londonaquaticscentre.org

Above image  ©Luke Hayes

About the London Aquatics Centre
Located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the London Aquatics Centre is operated by charitable social enterprise GLL, on behalf of London Legacy Development Corporation. After hosting swimming, diving, synchronised swimming, modern pentathlon and Paralympic swimming during the 2012 Games, the London Aquatics Centre has welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors since it opened in 2014.  As part of its London 2012 Legacy commitments, the London Aquatics Centre now offers affordable public swimming and fitness facilities to all ages and abilities, and hosts a variety of events. The world-class facility is also used as an elite training venue and is the training home of Olympic bronze medallist, Tom Daley.

About GLL
Established in 1993, GLL is the largest UK-based charitable social enterprise delivering leisure, health and community services. Under the brand Better, the organisation operates more than 300 public sport and leisure centres and 88 libraries in partnership with more than 50 local councils, public agencies and sporting organisations. Better leisure facilities enjoy 40 million visitors a year and have more than 650,000 members.

GLL exists to make community services and spaces better for everyone. In practice, that means investing all profits back into providing quality leisure and fitness facilities for the good of all in the communities where GLL operates. Alongside the organisation’s core leisure and library divisions, GLL runs sport and legacy development, health intervention and education, as well as offering the GLL Sports Foundation, one of the largest independent support programmes for talented young athletes in the UK.

About Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
London’s newest visitor destination, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, is a place unlike any other. Visitors to the Park are able to enjoy beautiful parklands and waterways, world famous sporting venues, arts and events. As a new heart for east London, the Park will also provide new homes, jobs and a cultural and education quarter. The London Legacy Development Corporation promotes and delivers physical, social, economic and environmental regeneration in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the surrounding area, in particular by maximising the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For more information visit QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk, follow us on Twitter @noordinarypark and like us on Facebook 

For more information contact: Ed Smith, Senior Marketing Executive at the London Aquatics Centre and Copper Box Arena, on +44(0)7772 223334 or email ed.smith@gll.org

"It is a great legacy of the Olympics" The Guardian

London Aquatics Centre - Zaha Hadid Architects

London Aquatics Centre - image and data download