EXPLAINER: Water Cube where Phelps ruled turns into Ice Cube

By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Somewhere under the four sheets of curling ice being used for the Beijing Olympics is the swimming pool where Michael Phelps splashed his way to history in the 2008 Summer Games. The few spectators allowed into the National Aquatics Center might think the pool was filled in to allow the curlers to slide their heavy granite stones down long, narrow sheets of ice to try to knock out their opponent’s rocks, accompanied by shouting and furious sweeping. Not so. In a cool bit of engineering and technology, the Water Cube became the Ice Cube.