Teams Inconvenienced as Blodgett Pool Closed for Maintenance

Updated April 18, 2025, at 5:46 p.m.

Blodgett Pool — the primary pool Harvard’s aquatic sports teams use for practice — has been closed for nearly three weeks as the Athletics Department drains and replaces the pool’s water, forcing multiple teams to move to temporary practice locations.

The 750,000-gallon pool was first closed on March 28 to be fully drained and refilled, according to Harvard Athletics Spokesperson Imry Halevi. Blodgett Pool is expected to reopen on April 18.

Students on aquatic sport teams said they were told the pool was checked for “chemical imbalances” and later closed for maintenance. The pool was last drained in 2014, and estimates for the frequency of pool drainages vary online.

Men’s and women’s water polo, and men’s and women’s swim and dive are the only Harvard Athletics teams that use Blodgett. Of the four teams, women’s water polo — which has had a dominant season, standing 22-6 and clinching its first regular season championship in program history last week — is the only one currently in season.

Ella N. Schneider ’26, a member of the women’s water polo team, said that Blodgett Pool’s closure has put her team “to the test.”

Schneider said that without access to Blodgett, the team has traveled to MIT and Boston University for practices, in addition to using the Malkin Athletic Center pool.

Travel to different athletic facilities — with 15 athletes and their equipment — has been an unexpected speed bump in their season, according to Schneider.

“It’s taking an extra few hours out of our week, which is definitely really challenging,” Schneider said.

The women’s water polo team is currently scheduled to host Iona University at Blodgett Pool on Saturday — its first scheduled home game since the closing.

Anthony Rincon ’25, the captain of the men’s swim and dive team, said that the swim team typically practices in the water at Blodgett 10 times each week, but they had switched to three weekly practices in the MAC pool and doing more exercise on land than usual.

For a team that just started its postseason last month, Rincon said, it has been more difficult to transition.

“So we had finished our season pretty much a week before the pool was closed, so people were on break, and then we wanted to get things started going again with pretty high volume stuff,” Rincon said. “So it was kind of a bummer that Blodgett was closed.”

In addition to the added travel time, Schneider said the team has moved some practices to the MAC pool — which is less than half the size of Blodgett, leading to limited drills and adjusted practice plans.

“The way that we get really quality work done is by playing up and down and scrimmaging and going against each other, and we just really don’t have any space in the MAC to do that,” she said.

“We’ve been working a lot on our foundational skills, and we’ll do swim sets and we’ll do other technique-oriented drills and things, but it’s really not the same,” Schneider added.

As women’s water polo approaches their conference championships in a week, Maya Z. O’Dea ’27 said the team’s sights are set on winning. She said the practices at various different pools have offered an opportunity to adjust to unusual environments as the team near the climax of their season.

“This year, conference is on the road. It’s at Brown and so honestly, practicing ‘on the road’ at these other pools is actually great practice for us,” O’Dea said. “I honestly think it’s been pretty beneficial and hasn’t been a roadblock at all.”

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.