This mesmerizing timelapse shows the construction of a million-gallon Olympic pool in 30 seconds
From the 100-meter butterfly to the 800-meter freestyle, the swimming competitions at the Rio Olympics are just heating up.
To prepare for the Games, American swimmers - including decorated athletes like Michael Phelps and Dara Torres - practiced in 164-foot-long pools in the US. '
The pools, which were used during the trials in June and July, were newly built replicas of what the team would see in Rio de Janeiro. That meant that in late May, two Olympic-sized pools were built in just 16 days at the Century Link Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
US Swimming captured the impressive construction process (which took 200 builders just 10 days) in a timelapse video. Workers first removed all of the chairs from the arena and convention center, then pieced together the pool's floor and sides.
Next, the workers installed starting blocks, filled the pool with water - combined, the two pools contain over two million gallons - and added the lanes.