It’s been nearly a year since the Mary Wayte Swimming Pool closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From mid-March until the third week of June, swimmers of all ages were not only halted from participating in their beloved water exercise, but from socializing in person on a regular basis.

After a nearly three-month swimming stoppage at the pool, the state and Mercer Island School District allowed for indoor water activities to resume, but initially in small strokes.

Olympic Cascade Aquatics owner Alice Godfred, whose club contracts with the school district to operate the facility, and her group assembled a proposal complete with safety guidelines to set the reopening in motion.

When the school district flashed them the green light, lap swimming could feature only one person per lane and competitive teams could stagger up to three swimmers per lane. They resumed lessons in about the middle of July when the state allowed up to five swimmers in a pod, but they went with three swimmers and an instructor and all needed to remain six feet apart. Instructors are required to wear face shields and some don masks underneath the shields.

Swimmers are required to wear masks outside of the pool, new swimmers need to sign a waiver and everyone takes a temperature check. Since they had to close the locker rooms, swimmers must arrive and leave already dressed in their suits.

By September, Godfred said the state allowed them to have two people per lane for lap swimming, up to four people per lane for competitive teams and instructors can now interact closely with their young swimmers. On March 1, the Mercer Island High School girls swim and dive team returned to the pool for training and will begin its shortened season this month. Since only 44 people are presently allowed in the facility at a time, the Islanders are eyeing virtual competitions with their opponents for now, Godfred said.

“It’s like they swim the meet at the same time, but in different locations, and then combine the results to see how they would do,” she added.

Godfred said that along with reservation-only lap swimming, child and adult lessons and competitive teams, they were scheduled to add water aerobics to the docket at the start of March. She added that the pool is booked from its opening time of 5:30 a.m. until 9-10 p.m.

They’re following the state’s COVID guidelines to the fullest extent, including cleaning and sterilizing the pool area after lap swimmers complete their 55-minute activity.

There have been no cases of the virus being contracted at the pool, said Godfred, noting that they had to close just one time for 24 hours to disinfect the pool when a patron said they contracted the virus at work.

People have been thrilled to return to the pool and Godfred said she’s received many appreciative emails from customers about the pool’s safety protocols.

“Especially, I would say, our senior population, because a lot of them can’t run and walk tremendous distances. So it’s their form of exercise,” she said. “Parents want to get their kids back into a learn-and-swim environment. Some of them, that’s the only time they see other kids, at least at the beginning of this whole thing.”

Getting her Olympic Cascade Aquatics squad back into the water “was like heaven,” said Godfred, because she can now see the kids outside of Zoom calls. Godfred — originally Olympic Cascade Aquatics co-owner with her vital business partner John Walker, who passed away in 2018 — has lived on the Island for 20 years and used to compete in triathlons and ironmans.

The pool — which is named after Olympic gold medalist and legendary Island swimmer Mary Wayte — was also home to Godfred’s three daughters, who all swam for Mercer Island High School. In fact, multiple state champ Rachel Godfred still owns the school’s girls 500-yard freestyle mark with a blistering time of 4:55.19.

The Mary Wayte Swimming Pool is located at 8815 SE 40th St. For more information and COVID guidelines, visit www.mercerislandpool.com or call (206) 588-1117.