Olympia Schwimmhalle

Olympia Schwimmhalle
Building information
Full name:	Olympia Schwimmhalle
City:	Munich, Germany
Capacity:	1,500

The Olympia Schwimmhalle is an aquatics centre located in the Olympiapark in Munich, Germany. It hosted the swimming, diving, water polo, and the swimming part of the modern pentathlon events at the 1972 Summer Olympics. At the 1972 Olympics, the stadium had a 9000-seat capacity which was reduced to 1,500 soon after. During the 1972 Olympics, the Olympic Records in all 29 Olympic swimming events were broken as well as the World Records in 20 events.

The Schwimmhalle is unique for its roof construction which is a lightweight stressed-skin structure. This curved structure bears loads through tension only, not compression. The double curvature in the roof design is what provides support which is further stabilized through pretensioned guy wires.

The Olympia Schwimmhalle is where swimmer Mark Spitz broke the record for most individual gold medals won in a single Olympics with seven gold medals. This record was not surpassed until fellow swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

References

• 1972 Summer Olympics official report. Volume 2. Part 2. pp. 184–7.