This place is a beautiful LA gem... aside from it's historical significance ('84 Olympics), the pool has a beautiful, safe & fun "family" area with an interactive Splash zone for the kids (meaning the kids can control some the height & force of the splashing guns). There are deeper lap areas & a section for older kids & adults, but the true gem is the family section. It appears the family pool must be maintained with salt, so you don't get as much of a chlorine smell or residue. Some things to know if you go, which I had to learn by trial & error on my 1st trip there (last week) because they don't do a good job on their website of informing you of the rules - I found out everything by telling the workers it was my first time & then getting bits & pieces of information from different employees: 1 - you enter to the far left of the building & buy a ticket then circle back to the entrance. It was $9 for my dad, 4 yo daughter, 6 month old (yes, they charge for babies!) and myself. $9 for all 4 of us isn't bad, since some pools are $10 per adult. There are very moderately priced monthly memberships from what I understand. If you have children under 7yo, you each get a matching wrist band which means you agree to stay within an arms length of your child at all times. 2 - once you enter, you have to go to the locker room & change into your swim clothes, they won't let you into the pool area unless you are ready to get in, i.e. I had on a dress cover up over my swimsuit & I was told I had to take that off in the locker room and store it. 3 - You must store your bags & there are two options for this. 1 - you can use lockers but you must bring your own lock. 2 - there is a "bag drop off" where you can leave your bags & they give you a pin with a # which you attach to your swimsuit & bring back to exchange for your bags. 4 - Next you shower off before heading out to the pool. Other than yourself in your swimsuit you can only take a towel, your flip flops, your sunscreen & a water bottle. They did let me bring in a small bag with baby supplies. And some of the entrance monitors must be stricter than others because I was told you can't take a phone or leave any unattended bags but I saw plenty of this out there. On my first (& only as of yet) visit, after figuring this all out by trial & error, I was ready to give up on this pool... but my daughter was so excited and it looked so pretty we quickly forgot about that. The lifeguards are super vigilant & friendly, there are many of them, so I felt my child was really safe there. The management and most of the service associates were very friendly (although strict, which is good). I saw a couple of the managers (I assume they were the management) walking around talking to parents, making sure everyone was having a good time & safe. I did hit a snafu with the associates in the bag drop/locker room. Being my first time there, I assumed all three bag drop windows were open and being serviced. The associates saw me (and a few women) standing there, even looked at me directly, but failed to ever mention that window was not going to be attended. Instead they let us all stand there for over 10 minutes until I finally asked if that window we were standing at was open. One associate in particular gave major attitude & rudely said "NO" and the other one just ignored me. I asked if they ever planned to let us know & again, just ignored me. So I walked over to another window, which by now had a long line, & when I got to the front the "ruder" of the attendants just reached out her hand for my pin/ticket... I again told her "you know it's my first time here, you should have told us you were not planning to attend that window" and again she just stared at me and didn't even answer me, just gave me my bags and reached out for the next persons pin. I marched right over to the pool entrance & explained what happened. A lifeguard helped me & sincerely apologized & said they really try to train on good customer service, so she called over a manager... who also apologized & said he would talk to her & when I said "thank you, please do" he seemed annoyed that I said that... lol... I hope they can work out their customer service issues with their associates because physically this is a beautiful, clean, safe family pool that should be enjoyed by more local families. I'll give it another try, as it's in my neighborhood & I like to stay local & support nearby locales. I'll update if the customer service experience improves or not! read more

Had my son in this over the summer the swim teacher didn't even get in the water, and worse when my son was struggling half way through the pool looking like he was going to drown the swim teacher just walked away. Me and my wife ran in to get him and another swim teacher went to help my son. And then a month later when the class is done with he told my son he didn't pass , WTF ??? read more

The pool is very nice and so are all of the coaches. Our kids had a great time at lessons during the summer and their water abilities definitely grew! Only negative is the lockers rooms could use updating/fixing and more frequent cleaning. read more

Manager was great . Everything was going great . However ,when getting back our items from the males locker we didn't get everything. Inside the backpack was a phone with money.The money was gone when we got the backpack back. The phone and everything valuable was on the bottom of the backpack and when getting it back it was on top of everything . The manager when we went was understanding and was making a report . However, both times when we talked to the locker room guy . He sounded guilty and keep saying we can't even go through your stuff. read more

As public infrastructure of the City's Parks and Recreation Department goes, this is par for Los Angeles. A facade to dazzle while the internal bowels of the system are putrid and failing. The changing rooms here are less than thoughtfully designed. Okay there is clearly no design going on at all.. There's no "flow" to this interior design. You walk in-- from a confusing corridor with directions pasted on paper --smack dab into shower stalls, but the "changing area" (which is a generous description for a bench placed in the middle of a space) is further inside. The lockers are sized for kindergarteners, not for swimmers who bring flippers, towels etc. You might like to lock your street shoes in there...otherwise you have to rely on the very bored locker room attendants whiling away their best years and pouting to prove their point. Bring your ticket in with you, to the attendant at the side of the pool, otherwise they will not let you in. After you paid and they let you through to the changing room, which is the only way to reach the pool...why must you prove-- with a little lottery ticket --that you paid? It's a typically thoughtless procedure to make it as meaninglessly tough as you can. Who makes changing cubicles without a bench or shelf to place your bags? They have generously provided a single $2 Home Depot hook on the side, out of which you have to manage changing out of wet swimsuit, towels, and various pieces of street clothing. When I said County public facilities, I wasn't jesting, perhaps they offer a couple more hooks in the prison cells? The shower curtains look like they have not been changed in ten years, frayed and stained. The two pools are usually filled to capacity. The shallow pool is so rank with sun block that I felt I'd contract some kind of ear or throat infection and I will never set foot in that pool again. ( It can be a 50 meter configuration.) The deeper pool, for 25 yard laps, is slightly better in water quality. One hopes. The staff at the front can be in a stupor and have that far-away reassuring gaze, or if you're lucky you'll get the friendly male attendant who is responsive and feels a public service ethic, being a public employee and all. Another big Los Angeles fail. Best weather in the country, which is totally wasted in outdated public recreational facilities in disrepair. read more

John C Argue Swim Stadium - Outside impressive inside decrepit - Swimming Pools Near Me - Los Angeles, California

Jesus H. Christ. How often do you get to swim in a pool that was used during the olympics and in addition it is only $2.50 (or $2 with your library card). This is the BEST value for a pool in Los Angeles. Hands down. The entrance is grand. LOS ANGELES SWIM STADIUM in a Greek coliseum facade style. It's almost intimidating. Lap swim is half of the long course. It is split by a movable divider. The other half is deep water diving. The 3rd pool is entirely rec swim. This is a BEAUTIFUL facility. The lap pool was pristine and blue. It was like swimming in HD. They have tons of pictures from the 1932 Olympic games. Sadly, they do not offer long-course lap swimming here for regular folks. They only have long course for special events. Regardless - amazing pool. read more

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I have been coming to this swimming pool for the better part of 7 years and I can tell you that the staff are friendly, the pools are cleaned frequently, and the environment is wonderful. I do a lot of lap swimming and sometimes for competitions, and these pools are perfect for such training. I highly recommend this pool stadium for all people: beginners, intermediates, and advanced swimmers will all fit in. You will not regret coming here. read more

It's peaceful. Never overcrowded. Very clean. They had treadmills under water too. Perfect spot.

The John C. Argue Swim Stadium is a very nice facility for swimming. It is located in Exposition Park just south of the Coliseum. As others have mentioned, the facility was used for the 1932 Olympics. There are 2 swimming pools at this facility, the main competition pool, and the family pool. The competition pool is 50 meters by 25 yards. The water temperature in the competition pool was around 78 degrees. The family pool is a half oval shape. The pool length in the family pool is 44 yards. The competition pool is open for lap swimming Monday through Friday from 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM, and then again from 11AM to 4:30 PM. The family pool is open for lap swimming from 5PM to 7:30 PM. On weekends, the competition pool is open for lap swimming from 1PM to 4:30 PM. Recreational swimming in the family pool is open from all week, including weekends from 1PM to 4PM. The fee to swim here is very reasonable. If you like to read and have a LA City Library Card, it costs $2. If you are like me, and you cannot read, and do not have a LA City Library Card, they discriminate, and charge you $2.50. Parking is free in Lot 1. Kick Boards and Pull Buoys are available for you to borrow if you need additional punishment for your swim workout. Although the facility may have been used in the 1932 Olympics, there is nothing old here. The facility is nice and modern as it was renovated several years ago. Everything about this place is new, and clean. I don't know about the women's locker room, but, there are 2 male locker rooms. I was a little worried after I finished my laps because the school aged children had finished their splashing at the same time as I did. I was worried that they would overtake the men's locker room. It was a relief to see that they had both a children's locker room, and an adult locker room. The lockers are nice and new and are available for you to use if you bring a lock. If you do not have a lock, you can check in your valuables with the locker room attendant. A bulkhead separates the main competition pool into 2 pools. The north pool, closer to the Coliseum, is used for high school meets and is proper sized for competitions at 25 yards. The southern half of the pool, which is used for lap swimming, is a nonstandard size. I found out that it was nonstandard sized when my 100 yard swim was slower than usual. Also, because I normally swim in a 25 yard pool, I know when it is time to do a flip turn. But, every time I was ready to flip turn, I was still 2 strokes away from the wall. When I asked the lifeguard about the pool length, he laughed and told me that the lap pool was 27 yards. 27 yards not 25 yards! It is longer than a normal short course yard pool, and it is a little short for a short course meter pool. 24.68 meters is not equal to 25 meters. It took me a while to get used to it. I couldn't do my usual sprint workouts because of the extra yards. But, then again, some swimmers like the additional length and consider it good for training. I like this pool for lap swimming. It is rich in history. You can see the Coliseum from the pool. It has everything that I want and need. It is nice, new and clean. The lifeguards watching the competition pool seemed friendly. This facility is a winner...once you get used to the nonstandard length of the pool. read more

John C Argue Swim Stadium - Swimming Pools Near Me - Los Angeles, California

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This place is fun. BUT I would add another star if their wheelchair seats that take you in the water would actually work. If someone who can't walk a few steps into the pool would want to come and have a good time, they wouldn't be able to. I use a wheelchair but can still walk a few steps so I was able to go in with the help of my husband. They have 3 accessible chairs to get you in the pool and as usual, NONE OF THEM WORK. Another thing, while we were having fun I notice a kid throwing up, in the pool. his dad was trying to cover it up by cleaning it off with the water we were all using, and let his kid continue playing. he was trying to be sneaky. We got out immediately. I alerted a worker and they immediately emptied the pool. I'm glad they took measures to fix the situation. besides that, my son loved it. I'll probably give it another try soon. PLEASE FIX THE ACCESSIBILITY ISSUE. read more

John C Argue Swim Stadium - Swimming Pools Near Me - Los Angeles, California

Really! Really, dig this place. Although there are a lot of rules, it really makes sense why its importantly placed this way. Most common rules lifeguards will shout to remind are; No running (which kids mostly tend to do) No piggy back rides (adults mostly do) Hanging onto booeys (everyone does) Lastly no toys or nose mask goggles. There two areas of swimming; lap lanes and, family lanes. Lap lane usually for swimming practice or just exercise. Family lane, self-explanitory for the general public. The prices are very affordable. $2.50 for adults. This place is perfect for a hot summer day. Bored and looking for something to do as a family, the pool is the place to be. The pool is clean, not riddled with chlorine. The rules in place keep it safe, and keep the swimming environment fun, chill and, relaxing. Happy swimming! read more

John C Argue Swim Stadium - The shallow end of the family area of the pool. - Swimming Pools Near Me - Los Angeles, California

Short & sweet review. Good value. Good instructors. INEXPENSIVE for pool usage and for the fitness facility. Additionally, Best value for water activities in South LA. I'm a sucker for architecture but I also have to agree the seating area is an extreme incline. Warm showers and plenty of lockers to store your belongings. -Enjoy read more

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Hands down best public pool in Los Angeles. They have 3 beautiful pools that are well maintained and typically uncrowded. The locker rooms are totally adequate and the shower stalls have curtains which you know if a luxury if you frequent any of the other public pools in the city. Highly recommend. read more

UPDATE with a Monday lap swim experience: Lap swim is 10AM-3PM during the week. Got there at 11 and parked in two-hours free street parking on Bill Robertson Lane. There is also a free lot catty-corner to the facade of the building--just to the southwest of the entrance. On Sunday I went in through the south gates, but on Monday the gates are closed and you go in the main front doors on the west facade. Paying my $2.50 entry fee took over 5 minutes today. There are two windows, both of which were occupied by moms and kids learning about swimming lesson options. None of the other people hanging out behind the windows were willing to look down the line and let pass those of us who just needed to hand over cash. Thus the kinda long wait to get in. Once in, almost all the lap lanes were free. Oh, and there are 8 lap lanes, not the 12 I very incorrectly guessed in my earlier review (below). INITIAL REVIEW: This review is for a Sunday afternoon lap swim experience. The pool is open on Sundays for both lap swim and recreation swim from 1-4:30 PM. I got there at 12:55 and there was already a line of about 15 people waiting to get in. On Sundays, you can park in the angled spaces on the south side of the building, even though the signs say "Permit Required." You CANNOT park here during the week, and I don't know about Saturdays. The south side of the building is also where they were letting people in today. I paid ($2.50, no ID required) to get a ticket at the eastern gate, then went in through the western gate. Keep your ticket when you go into the locker room to change; you will give it to a guard once you enter the pool deck. There are lockers, and I don't think they require coins, but I didn't really investigate because you can leave your stuff with an attendant who gives you a numbered safety pin in return. Lap swim is half of one of the two pools, the other half is deep water diving. The other pool is entirely rec swim. The lap pool is Olympic size, not sure about the rec pool. I didn't count, but I think there were about 12 lap lanes. In the 60 minutes I swam, the lanes never filled up and I had never had to share. This is a BEAUTIFUL facility. The lap pool was pristine, not a single piece of debris on the bottom. There were a ton of lifeguards on site, all of whom were so friendly, which is impressive because they have their work cut out for them at this VERY busy pool. The rec pool was bustling and noisy, but you'd never know while you were under water in the lap pool. With the sunlight dancing through the sparkling water, this was a really pleasant experience. Oh, and make sure you've got tinted goggles, because it is full sun out there, and the pool would probably be blinding without them. Minus one star for the locker rooms. Posted signs ask you to limit shower use to one minute, which is fine for rinsing off before going on the pool deck (please do this!) but makes it impossible to wash your hair after a swim. Also, no hooks in the entire locker room. Where do you put your swim bag while you get changed? There is one small bench, but that's it. Or there are the lockers, but if you're changing in a curtained stall, that means leaving your bag out of arm's reach. If a lot of people have just come through, the entire floor is wet, so you basically have to put your bag down into water to keep it nearby while you dress. And where do you hang your suit and cap while you change? I have no idea. I felt like I was juggling all my belongings while trying to pull on my underwear--no fun. read more

The pool from the 1932 Olympics has been beautifully renovated into a spacious lap / diving pool. There's another more shallow pool for recreation. The only downside is that in the summer the rec pool gets overtaken by screaming kids and teenagers--but the lap pool really does not get crowded. These are two outdoor pools in the EXPO center (rose garden, science center, natural history museum), so I'm not sure why some of these reviews look like they belong to the USC pool. For $50 you can have access to their fitness facility and the pools for three months, this is a great deal. read more

Opened 40 minutes late on a hot summer day on the weekend. No one was giving updates. No one offered apologies or free admission. We were waiting in the hot summer sun with young children. What a horribly run organization. Whoever is in charge should be fired. 7/11/2021 read more

This is a great pool to swim in - although it can get busy on weekends, on the weekdays, it's not very crowded at all. I've had to split lanes, but have never once had to circle swim. It's bare bones, but very clean and the staff are nice. They have lockers and hot showers and since it's an LA City pool, it's $2.00 to swim if you've got your library card. There are two pools - one splasher pool for the kids and the lap pool, which is divided into a 25 meter lap course and a diving pool. As of this writing, they do not offer long-course lap swimming here. Which is fine with me. 50m and crowded or more turns and a lane to myself? I'm picking the second option. read more

Used to work out there a lot, people there are always so nice to me and the people working out are very respectful!

I have been to a lot of university pools as a spectator, and this is one of the worst pools for watching a swim meet. First of all the place is a fortress, you could conceivably spend hours looking for a way to get in. (You have to go through the activities building, and nowhere is there signage saying "POOL THIS WAY". Second, the seating in the stands is about as uncomfortable as it gets. It's just a cement over sized staircase. Third and most importantly, there is no shade. It is like being in a convection oven up in those stands, you could probably even get a sunburn on your backside just from sitting down. In fact, the entire pool area is completely devoid of shade whatsoever. I suppose that's good for keeping the pool waters warm without too much of an energy expenditure, but man, if you're somewhat prone to sunburning like I am, this is not a good place to hang out. I missed the entire meet yesterday, due to the fact that the only shady comfortable place I could find was not in view of the pool. Oh there is the view from the parking garage that lies just beyond the pool site, but then you have to stand for the entire meet, you cant see the scoreboard, and you need binoculars to see any of the races. read more

I swam here once and will definitely return. Good temperature, clean, good hours, easy parking, ok locker room (not great but I've definitely seen worse at public pools). The only negative is that they don't seem to ever have long course hours (50 m) -- however the 25 m is pretty good. Oh and also it is a LONG walk from the women's locker room and a very short one for the men, which I think is kind of lame. I would give this 4.5 if I could. read more

I went 2 times to this swimming pool. The first time was a great experience. The second time was very bad they didn't want my wife and I to go inside arguing we need a swimsuit. I told the women at the cashier we do have swimsuits. After they argued they don't have change to return money on my 20 dollars and don't accept cards. I asked to speak to the manager of the swimming pool for help he explained this swimming pool is for children having card to access and they never carry cash. What is not true because we went there few weeks early and had no problem getting in. Some cashiers and manager are racist and if you have a white skin complexion it is better to go to a other place, I get it. read more

Best pool in the City of Los Angeles! The staff is very friendly. The pool is one of the cleanest pools I've ever been to. I wouldn't mind spending a good part of the summer here. read more

This is the most ineptly run place I've ever seen. Every staff member has a different answer, the signs are misleading and/or wrong, and the rules changes almost daily. The pool is closed randomly and there is no way of knowing until you're physically in the building trying to check-in (have you guys heard of social media?) I love the pool facilities and the staff are usually very nice, but the level of disorganization in this place is staggering. You have 383864373 staff on every minute and plenty of hours to figure out how to run a pretty simple business and yet it's a total disaster. Shameful. read more

Alright , just that it's really strict about what you wear and they ask to much question , the employees are all over the place they all got different answer when you ask them a question. read more

The pool has a lot of empty lanes for lap swimming when it's open. But it's closed to the public on half of weekends. They host all kinds of competitions, games, parties, etc. They don't work on every possible holiday. There are usually no notifications about closures. You have to call them every time and ask if the pool is open or not. No wonder very few people visit it. read more

I have a hard time rating this facility because the experience depends entirely on which pool you swim in. If you go at a time when lap swim in in the lap pool, I would give this facility 5 stars. If you have to swim in the family pool, I would give it 1-2 stars. The locker rooms are very decent and they have a separate locker room for adults, which cuts down on the small children you have to work around. The place is absolutely packed with families in the late afternoon for swimming lessons, but the second locker room makes it manageable. The free parking in Lot 1 and $2/ $2.50 entry fee are also very reasonable. The large lap pool is just about perfect, no complaints there. However, the family pool is VERY warm, and there is only a small part partitioned off for lap swimming. It is very shallow- maybe 3.5-4 feet, and murky. Also, with the other half of the pool being full of small children getting swimming lessons, swimming in the family pool involves plenty of evasive maneuvers to avoid the many floating wads of hair that are all around the pool. So, I would heartily recommend this as a place to swim laps if you can swim in the main pool, but avoid it if you will be relegated to the family pool. read more

Let me start by saying the pool is amazing! They have lap pools and a wading pool with splash pads. The lockers are always clean and accessible. The price is very cheap at 3.50 for adults and 1.00 for kids 17 and under, its open year around, plus the kids enjoy it very much. However every time I'm here someone is changing rules on me or telling me what I can't do. I've been coming to this pool for 15 plus years and in the last 4 i have been bringing my daughter. She has a bathing suit with built in floaters that she has been wearing for the past two years to this same establishment and all of a sudden last week they told me she can't wear it and never been able to wear it. Funny thing is for the first five times I asked all the employees if her bathing suit was acceptable and they all told me yes as long as it is built in to the suit and cannot be removed. Now an employee is telling me she can't wear it any more? My daughter loves this bathing suit and I made sure to inquire about this bathing suit many times to be told all of a sudden after being here so many times with it and lifeguards seeing it that she can't wear it, I don't know if I was being picked on but it was enough for me to feel uncomfortable. read more

I signed up for swim lessons and enjoyed the classes. The locker rooms could use a little updating (stall curtains). It was a little crazy when I was there, it was summer time and of course kids were running rampant but otherwise it was cool. read more

Not sure why the link was changed. My original review was for the McDonald Pool at USC. The one star rating goes to Yelp for letting this happen. read more

In general, I love this pool. The lap pool is huge, has lots of lanes and the water is very clean. Having said that....the things that annoy the heck out of me about this pool. This is a very busy pool. So if you do swim laps, generally when the pool opens and near the end of the lap times are the best times to swim. The summer.....take up yoga because this pool is overrun while screaming, yelling, running, poorly behaved kids. The lifeguards and other staff really can't control all the kids. It's batshit crazy. Lastly, lap swimmers....if you go to the night lap swim in the "family" pool...swim at your own risk...unlike the regular pool the family pool water is super cloudy (gross) and warm (gross) and there are always lots of birds (and bird poop) around the pool (gross). Did I mention I love this pool? I really do. read more

Just love this place, nice staff. Clean pool, no too much chlorine. If you want to get nice tan, go visit.

Its a privilege to be able to lap swim at a former olympic pool and given it was opened in the 1930's this pool is in great condition. I went early afternoon mid week and had a lane to myself. The pool is limited to 25 m, they have kickboards/pullbouys, there is a bag check and it cost $3. Great for training if you're from out of town. read more

beautiful outdoor pool! it has 2 humongous tanks. one for swimming and the other a little more kid friendly. swim stadium today is hosting the LA84 Foundation annual swim competitors. and it's amazing! read more

I haven't seen the remodeled stadium, but will give it 5 stars based on fond memories of the original one. Born and raised in the great City of Los Angeles, many a Saturday was spent in that gorgeous Olympic pool. The top diving platform was terrifyingly high. Just looking up at it freaked me out. Never went anywhere near it. Because of the pool's depth, you had to pass a swimming test before being left on your own. Arriving dripping wet from a mandatory shower, a lifeguard put you through some routine paces. Don't remember the age and height requirements, but kids weren't allowed in that pool back in the day. There was a large one for them nearby and it was only around 4 feet deep. Good to relax in if it wasn't too crowded. However, that huge Olympic pool will always be my favorite, despite the dicey neighborhood. We had a gorgeous pool at UCLA as well, but there was something special about old Exposition Park. Sadly, I no longer live in Los Angeles. All I can say is, don't even think about moving to miserable San Francisco. A legend in its own mind, this decrepit little burg wrote the book on insanely expensive, backwater dumps with horrible weather (and lousy public pools). read more