I'm Meredith Sommers, and I'm getting in the water everywhere in America so you know exactly where to jump in next.
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Does it make The Great American Swim?
Meredith, still wet
Hi, it's meTen years as a competitive swimmer. Sixteen years running a Southern California swim school. A triathlete who taught lessons in the actual ocean. Water isn't a hobby for me — it's the through-line of my entire life.
Grandmother
Swim instructor
Mother
Swim instructor
Grandfather
Built swimming pools
Since 2016 our family hasn't lived in a house without a pool. If the house didn't have one — we built one.
Our mobile swim school taught kids in private backyard pools all over Southern California — celebrity families included — and we contracted with hotel pools up and down the coast. Wherever there was water, we showed up.
I grew up in Austin, spent a huge chunk of my adult life in SoCal, and now Atlanta is home with my husband and four kids.
I'm traveling to places you can actually go: crystal-clear springs, lakes, beaches, historic pools, resort pools, swimming holes, waterfalls, rivers, and the wonderfully weird stuff I stumble into along the way.
Beauty
/10
Sunsets, water color, the view
The Swim
/10
How good does it feel to swim?
Fun
/10
Jumps, slides, chaos
Ease
/10
Can a normal family pull this off?
Magic
/10
That feeling you can't explain
I'm starting close to home. Five completely different places to swim. One question: are they actually worth jumping into?
Atlanta, Georgia
Before I swim my way across America, I'm starting with the water I know best.
This is home. It's where my family swims, where I've spent countless hours in the water, and now, where The Great American Swim officially begins.
THE QUESTION: Every adventure needs a starting point. Why not my own backyard?
Status: FIRST SPLASH
Pine Mountain, Georgia
Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s, Liberty Bell Pool is a massive stone swimming pool tucked inside F.D. Roosevelt State Park.
This isn't a resort pool. It's a piece of Georgia history you can actually swim in.
I'm going to find out what it feels like to take a dip somewhere generations of Georgians have been swimming for decades.
THE QUESTION: Is this historic Georgia swimming spot still worth jumping into?
Status: ON THE LIST
Buckhead, Atlanta
Now we go from a piece of Georgia history to the rooftop of a luxury hotel.
Nobu has a heated rooftop saltwater pool overlooking Buckhead. But I'm not interested in whether the hotel is worth the money.
I want to know whether the swim is.
THE QUESTION: Does a luxury price tag actually buy you a better swim?
Status: ON THE LIST
Helen, Georgia
Float the Chattahoochee straight through downtown Helen. It's a completely different kind of water adventure and gives you the river, the mountains, and one of Georgia's most recognizable small towns all in one episode.
THE QUESTION: Does a river float deserve a spot next to the best pools in Georgia?
Status: ON THE LIST
Atlanta, Georgia
No five-star spa. No luxury rooftop. No river current.
Just a hotel pool you might have driven past a hundred times without giving it a second thought.
And that's exactly why I want to get in.
Because The Great American Swim isn't only about finding the most beautiful or expensive water in America. It's about finding the places that are actually worth jumping into.
And sometimes the biggest surprise might be the cheapest.
THE QUESTION: Can a $20 hotel swim beat the luxury experience?
Status: ON THE LIST
"I spent 16 years helping other people get into the water. Now I want to see where the water takes me."
— Meredith Sommers