City Hall inaugurates Olympic swimming pool for the Rio 2016 Games in Parque Oeste, Inhoaíba.

The Rio de Janeiro City Hall inaugurated, this Sunday (December 28th), the Olympic swimming pool at Parque Oeste Ana Gonzaga, in Inhoaíba, expanding the offer of sports, leisure and social inclusion in the West Zone. The facility was used during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, when it was the setting for the farewells of the greatest swimmer of all time, the American Michael Phelps, and the Brazilian multi-Paralympic champion Clodoaldo Silva, the "Shark of the Pools". Now, the structure becomes part of the daily life of the population and reinforces the park's vocation as a multifunctional public facility.

"Today is a very important day. This is the last Olympic legacy that was missing. No city that has hosted the Olympic Games has done the same as the Rio City Hall. All the equipment, the Radical Park, the Rita Lee Park, the schools built in the West Zone, everything from the Olympics was used later. This pool was from the Rio 2016 Aquatic Stadium. The stadium's structure gave rise to a lot of other things, and we had already built the pool thinking about bringing it to serve the population. And we want to train athletes here. We are very proud to bring this Olympic legacy to the West Zone," said the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, accompanied by the vice-mayor Eduardo Cavaliere.

The Olympic swimming pool has official competition dimensions, measuring 50 meters in length, and follows international standards used in major sporting events. Originally from the Olympic Aquatic Stadium of the Rio 2016 Games, the structure was dismantled, transported, and reinstalled in Parque Oeste.

Residents of Rio de Janeiro have gained access to a state-of-the-art facility, managed by the Municipal Sports Secretariat, where hydrogymnastics classes (Wednesdays and Fridays) and swimming lessons (Tuesdays and Thursdays) will be held for groups of various age ranges: baby (3 months to 3 years), children 1 (4 to 6 years), children 2 (7 to 9 years), children 3 (10 to 13 years), teenagers (14 to 17 years) and adults (over 18 years). Registration begins on January 6th at the Parque Oeste secretariat.

 

On weekends, the pool will be open as a recreational area, with a limited number of visitors, in accordance with safety regulations. As the pool is two meters deep, children under 12 years old must always be accompanied by a responsible adult. Animals and glass objects are also not allowed in the vicinity of the pool.

– This is the final project to be delivered as a legacy of the Rio 2016 Games. We are going to turn this pool into an Olympic Village, with lots of activities, swimming lessons, and also a leisure area, which is important in Parque Oeste. This delivery will mean a lot to this region – said the Secretary of Sports, Guilherme Schleder.

Winner of eight gold medals in eight events at the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, swimmer Douglas Matera celebrated the installation of the pool where he watched his brother Thomaz compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which at the time served as inspiration for him to return to competition.

– I was in the stands at Rio 2016 watching my brother in a spectacular atmosphere where the people of Rio embraced the Paralympic Games. At the end of that year, he called me to return to competition. This is a modular pool, so it was disassembled and brought to the park. It's great to be able to celebrate this legacy, this high-quality pool that will contribute to the development of the sport and also to the population having access to physical activities and quality of life – declared the swimmer from Team Rio.

Geralda Camelo, a 45-year-old resident of Pedra de Guaratiba, originally from Pernambuco, said she will be going to the pool every weekend with her 9-year-old daughter, Natacha Camelo.

"This is a very hot neighborhood. My daughter takes swimming lessons, but now she can do them here in the park, which is closer to home. I'll come every weekend; I just won't come during the week because of work," declared Geralda, who has lived in Rio for 28 years.

The handover marked the advancement of the second phase of the West Park project, conducted by the Municipal Urbanization Company (Rio-Urbe). In addition to the Olympic-sized swimming pool, the project includes the construction of a viewpoint, an ecumenical space, and a cascading shower with a support building equipped with changing rooms and a dining area. Furthermore, Rio-Urbe is building a children's playground, the base for the Municipal Guard's Elite Division – Municipal Force, a building for park workers, two public schools, multi-sports courts, and sand courts.

 

With a total area of ​​234 square meters, the Ana Gonzaga West Park is located on Avenida Cesário de Melo. The space was inaugurated in September 2024, when the first phase of construction was completed, and has been consolidating itself as an important cultural, sports, and leisure facility in the West Zone. The total investment exceeds R$ 220 million and represents one of the largest recent urban interventions in the region.

In the first phase of the project, equipment was delivered that quickly became a landmark, such as the Roberto Burle Marx Water Staircase, now one of the most visited spaces in the park, as well as a stage for events that has hosted famous singers, the Knowledge Center, a skate park, and a five-a-side football pitch.

– Another facility has been delivered to Parque Oeste, which is already a success and will be even more so with this Olympic legacy as part of it. The park continues to advance with works to bring more leisure, security and education to the residents of the region – said the Secretary of Infrastructure, Wanderson Santos.

Rio's Olympic legacy is consolidated.

The inauguration of the Olympic swimming pool in Parque Oeste also reaffirms the city of Rio's commitment to preserving and expanding the Olympic legacy of the Rio 2016 Games, a project resumed in 2021 by Rio-Urbe. The policy of reusing Olympic structures and materials ensured the creation of permanent facilities for the city, with a direct impact on education, culture, and sports. Among these initiatives, the recently inaugurated Rio Olympic Museum stands out. Located in the Velodrome of the Olympic Park, it tells the story of the Rio 2016 Games through dynamic and immersive interactions. The Velodrome also hosts high-performance training and introductory sports classes in 33 different modalities, in a sports space coordinated by the Municipal Sports Secretariat.

Another milestone is the construction of four schools in the West and Southwest Zones, in the neighborhoods of Bangu, Santa Cruz, Campo Grande, and Rio das Pedras, using repurposed materials from the Arena do Futuro, in the Technological Experimental Gymnasium (GET) model. The city also made history by transforming Arena Carioca 3 into the Isabel Salgado Olympic Educational Gymnasium (GEO), the first time in history that an Olympic stadium was converted into a public school. Following this, Rio-Urbe also carried out the restoration of the BMX tracks at the Deodoro Radical Park Olympic Center. With this initiative, Rio de Janeiro remains the only city in the world to maintain a BMX track to Olympic standards after hosting an edition of the Olympic Games.

Category:

• Sport
• Infrastructure
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• Rio-Urbe

December 28, 2025

Appointments: Clodoaldo Silva 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games Olympic Legacy Michael Phelps Ana Gonzaga West Park swimmingpool City Hall of Rio Rio 2016