Water polo athlete builds backyard hay bale pool to train for Olympics

A member of Canada's national women's water polo team wanted to keep up her training during the COVID-19 pandemic but all the pools were closed so she "baled" herself out by building one out of hay.

Kyra Christmas, 23, had been training full time with the team in Montreal as they prepared for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics before the pandemic hit.

When the physical distancing restriction began, she happened to be visiting her parents near Calgary, just southeast of Airdrie in Rockyview County. Then the Olympics were cancelled and all the pools shut down because of the coronavirus.

Still, Christmas was itching to get back intothe water and keep up her training.

"Being out of the pool for over a month was just a bit too long for me. So I was looking at, like, buying above ground for the first time and I realized that none of them are deep enough to tread water," Christmas told the Calgary Eyeopener.

"So my parents were, like, well, we can come up with a better solution than that."

• WATCH | Check out this timelapse video of the hay bale pool being built by Kyra Christmas and her family:

Alberta athlete builds hay bale pool

4 years ago

Duration 0:48

Kyra Christmas was set to go to the Tokyo Olympics when COVID-19 shut everything down. She's built a unique homemade pool in order to keep up her training.

Her father, Steven Christmas,works in landscaping construction, so he had the know-how and equipment they needed.

They decided to build their own outdoor pool.

It would be about fivemetres long, 2 metres wide and two metres deep.

And it would be made of hay 16 bales' worth.

Over two days, they stacked the bales, double-lined them with tarps and filled the resulting cavitywith four truckloads of water.

"I jumped in a couple times but I ended up having to order a wetsuit online because it's just too cold," Christmas said.

Christmas posted on Instagram to track the construction starting with the hashtag #justbertathingsand then posted a video detailing how it was done.

"Closing down the pools was the last straw for me, so I baled myself out and made my own," she says in the video.

So far, the hay bale pool has received lots of attention, she said.

Other members of the swimming community have asked to use it, she said, given all pools have been closed for the pandemic.

In the meantime, she remains optimistic about the Olympics, given theteam's qualification is expected to be recognized for the Games rescheduled to2021.

"It was a little disappointing at first but it just gives our team another year to train and get better together," Christmas said. "So I think in a way it was kind of a good thing."

The team's acceptance to the 2020 Olympics was its first since 2004, she said.

The national women's water polo team has made other fun Instagram videosduring the pandemic. In one posted a month ago, players across Canada pretend to be playing a game and passing the ballfrom their lawns, living rooms and even a hot tub.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.