At the 2020 AAU Diving National meet, held in early August in Noblesville, Indiana, meet organizers worked hard to ensure the safety of all of divers, coaches and spectators. AAU Diving is sharing the steps taken to make this meet a success with the hopes that it can serve as model for future competitions. We see this as a starting point and hope that other programs can build on this model and share their stories.

After our original location in Texas and our back up site in Florida became hot spots, AAU Diving was offered the Forest Park Pool in Noblesville, Indiana, which at that time had one of the lowest rates of infection in the Country. The Forest Park Pool had everything we needed: it was outdoors, offered lots of diving boards, and plenty of space for divers to allow for social distancing. We also blessed with a host club with lots of experienced volunteers and an amazingly helpful Hamilton County Tourism bureau. And of course more than enough Hoosier hospitality to go around.

The entire event was put together with about four weeks of planning. We were in constant contact with the local health department and their EMS services, along with the pool management and host club.

The divers were not allowed to use the locker rooms for changing; all divers came and left wearing their swimsuits. Portable bathrooms were brought in for the athletes only.Hosting the meet an outdoor venue where the chances of spreading the virus is reduced was a high priority. With 11 boards and a full set of towers, the Forest Park Pool allowed sufficient room for social distancing. The chlorine level in the pool was set to meet CDC guidelines.

We developed a schedule that kept the divers in the pool area for as little time as possible. Divers came in, warmed up, competed, received their awards and left the pool. After each event, the pool was cleared of divers, coaches and spectators to allow the area to be sanitized. Then the next group was allowed in. The divers were assigned boards to train on so that we could limit the number of people at any given station.

When the events were done for the day, there was an open warm-up for the next day’s events. Divers were required to sign up in advance only on the board they were competing on so that the size of each group was limited. It also kept the same divers together for warm-ups and competition.

For the divers to maintain social distancing they were mats placed behind the boards 6 feet apart for the divers to stand on. When one diver would go everybody would move up one mat. We closed several of the boards for the meet so that the divers would not get close to each other while waiting in line.

Everyone entering to compete or watch the competition was required to wear a mask and have their temperature checked. AAU Diving gave all coaches and divers custom-made mask for the event along with the T-shirt and backpack. Masks were made available to the spectator if they did not have one. Upon entering the site we used an entrance gate that was not open to the public so the divers could go directly to the diving well without interacting with the public attending the recreation portion of the complex.