V3 Sports Center in North Minneapolis opens with state-of-the-art pool and fitness facilities | Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

An Olympic-sized pool will provide competitive opportunities for inner-city youth

The V3 Sports Center, a state-of-the-art pool and sporting complex in North Minneapolis, held its grand opening ceremony on Saturday, June 6. The facility had been running limited hours for the past month and is now open daily. Despite rainy weather, hundreds of community members attended the ceremony, which included a dance party, fitness demos, food trucks, and activities for kids. 

The facility currently includes a 25-yard pool, a fitness center, and a childcare center, with a restaurant opening soon. Director of Facilities Luke Day says that the grand vision for the facility goes much further—when phase two of the building is complete, it will also host four basketball courts, a 300-meter indoor track, additional banquet space for events, and an Olympic-sized pool. The pool, shipped from Omaha, where U.S. athletes used it to train for the Olympics in 2021, will be one of only three 50-meter pools in Minnesota when installed.

Day hopes the 50-meter pool will help alleviate what he calls a “bottleneck” for competitive swimming teams in the Twin Cities. V3 is hoping to break ground on phase two construction next summer. 

Executive Director of V3 Sports Malik Rucker says the facility saw use by thousands of people during the limited hours in the past month, about 350 of whom got memberships. Rucker says the idea behind the facility was to replace many of the programs cut after the YMCA on Broadway was repurposed into a community center.  

“We wanted to create a space for health, wellness, and water safety,” Rucker said. V3 currently offers many fitness and swimming programs. The facility is also a Boys and Girls Club location.

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Day says one of the biggest parts of V3’s mission is water safety and preventing drownings. Black communities have much higher rates of drowning per capita on average, with Black adults being much less likely to know how to swim than white adults. Day says that the swimming lessons offered will be trauma-informed and culturally specific to help kids who may have had a drowning in their family or a near-drowning experience themselves. 

The swim program is rooted in a study by local Black researcher Dr. Ayanna Rakhu, whose doctoral thesis at the University of Minnesota studied why Black children are less likely to know how to swim.

Maya Marchelle, a Northside resident who hosted the grand opening, said she planned to take advantage of the swimming lessons to learn how to swim. Marchelle said many of her friends growing up did not learn how to swim because they could not afford lessons. She did not learn because of a stigma around hair, with her mother saying she could not get her hair wet if it had just been done. 

Eisha Marshal attended the grand opening with her daughter, Carliegh Hall. In the past month, Marshal and Hall bought a membership at V3 because it was a “less stressful” environment for Hall to swim in, and Marshal says it felt safer than the YMCA. Marshal hopes V3 will create a youth swim team that Hall can join.

Memberships to the V3 Sports Center can be purchased online at v3sports.org or in person at 701 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis. Memberships cost between $38 to $51 per month. Day passes and swim passes are also available.

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