LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Christine Shaighan brandished her gym membership card as she arrived for her weekly, morning swim but was unsettled to see her routine would be disrupted. In red, uppercase letters the top of the displayed, laminated paper stuck in Shaighan’s mind as she read, “POOLS CLOSED.”
On Wednesday, the Las Vegas Athletic Club announced they would close their pools to comply with a Southern Nevada Health District regulation that requires lifeguards at all gym pools.
The requirement for Las Vegas-area gym pools is a reversal of a 2020 waiver that had previously allowed certain locations to operate without lifeguards. The change in safety regulations follows a health district investigation which found a woman had drowned at an LVAC pool followed by a near-drowning event earlier this year.
New details of the swimmer’s death and apparent lack of action were obtained following 8 News Now filing an intervention in court amid arguments between the LVAC and the health district over the lifeguard requirement.
The health district released a statement following the LVAC’s announcement of pool closures and cited ongoing discussions seeking an alternative plan to save the facilities.
“Revised versions of LVAC’s lifeguard staffing plans were submitted on August 9, and August 15, but could not be approved due to incomplete information,” a health district spokesperson wrote. “The Health District and LVAC are meeting this week to develop the final draft of the lifeguard staffing plan.”
The closures already impacting gym members with health restrictions like Shaighan who relies on LVAC pools for exercise.
“I realize there’s no lifeguard on duty,” Shaighan said. “I’m choosing to swim at my own risk, I’m willing to do that.”
Shaighan said she is facing the same obstacle again as she recently ended her membership at EōS Fitness following the closure of one of their pools.
“I don’t have my own pool and I don’t live in a neighborhood that has a pool,” she said. “It’s a really important form of exercise to me, and I don’t know what I will do next.”
Following the death of a swimmer at an LVAC pool Shaighan said she understood the risks and responsibility she took to get the exercise she said she needed.
“I think what happened is really sad,” Shaighan said. “But again, we could sign waivers maybe not holding anybody responsible.”
Shaighan said she felt it unfair the regulation limited private gym pools but not private neighborhood pools, or private beaches which she said pose the same risk.
“Are we going to regulate that,” she said. “Where do we draw the line?”
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