For the second-straight year, Ann Arbor has been named the best swim city in the United States. The second-annual study, commissioned by USA Swimming and Speedo USA, found that the southeastern Michigan city is the best spot in the nation for swimmers of all ages, with San Jose-Santa Clara and San Francisco-Oakland grabbing the second and third sports, respectively.
The honor for Ann Arbor can be partially attributed to having the largest percentage of top USA Swimming athletes per capita, with more 60 Olympians, including 2012 gold medalist Tyler Clary, coming from the University of Michigan’s swimming program and Ann Arbor-based clubs. The city also has the second-highest number of pool facilities per capita of any American city, allowing the sport to be extremely accessible to its 110,000-plus residents.
“People love swimming in Ann Arbor and the community rallies around the sport. This honor is also a testament to the University of Michigan swim program and how it has inspired the entire city of Ann Arbor to get in the water,” said Clary, a Team Speedo athlete. “The combination of Club Wolverine, the University, city residents and Club Wolverine Swim Camp as one of the most successful swim camps in the country, is evidence of why the Ann Arbor swim community is so great.”
The top 10 best swim cities, as shown in the cool infographic below, were rounded out by Durham, Austin, Madison, Raleigh-Cary, Fort Collins, Washington, D.C. and Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk. You can see the complete list of Top 50 Swim Cities on the USA Swimming website.
*Each city’s ranking is based on an aggregate score in categories including percentage of active swimmers and swim clubs, number of accessible pools and volume of top-level swimmers from the area. Cities in the top 50 had an MSA population of 250,000 or higher.
Photo Courtesy: Michigan Athletics
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