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If you’ve been downtown this week, you know something special is happening. For one thing, there is a 66-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower at the corner of Georgia Street and Capitol Avenue.
Saturday marked the beginning of U.S. Swimming Olympic Team Trials, which are being hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium, marking the first time an Olympic-size swimming pool has been built inside an NFL stadium. The trials run for nine days straight, ending on Sunday, and are being aired in prime time on NBC. First- and second-place finishers will compete next month at the Paris Olympics.
The first night of the competition got off to a strong start—Indy set the world record for the number of spectators at an indoor swim meet, with nearly 21,000 in attendance. The light show, music and overall production of the event made for quite a show—that’s in addition to witnessing Gretchen Walsh set a world record in the 100-meter butterfly and seeing Aaron Shackell of Carmel become the first swimmer to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games by taking first place in the men’s 400-meter freestyle.
Our team at IBJ Media has dedicated substantial resources to covering all aspects of the swimming team trials. We know that Indy’s growth and reputation have been fueled in no small part by the growth of both amateur and professional sports. Earlier this year, Sports Business Journal listed Indianapolis as a top five sports city in America (along with Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Orlando), noting that we have hosted the Super Bowl, Final Fours, NBA All-Star Game, and, of course, the Indy 500 since 1911.
And while it is now commonplace for Indianapolis to host world-class sporting events, we cannot take them for granted. Sporting events and conventions bring in outside dollars to our community, support thousands of jobs and bring massive economic impact. The positive earned media affiliated with the events is priceless in terms of promoting the city and the state.
Nashville, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Phoenix and others are hungry to take a bite out of Indy’s sports business. That is why it is critical that Indy continue to take our game to the next level as the Indiana Sports Corp. did when it proposed to USA Swimming to hold the team trials in an NFL stadium. Hats off to Patrick Talty, Sarah Myer and the entire Indiana Sports Corp. team (and former Sports Corp. President Ryan Vaughn) for their work to beat out longtime host Omaha, Nebraska, as well as Minneapolis and St. Louis for the right to host this year’s swim trials.
And hats off to community leaders who continue to lean into sports as an avenue for attracting talent and growing the region’s economy. OneAmerica and its CEO, Scott Davison, committed substantial time and resources to help ensure the success of the swimming trials, including Davison’s personal pitch to USA Swimming to bring the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials to Indy.
The IBJ Media team has worked overtime to ensure our subscribers and the world know about the amazing work that has taken place ahead of and during the swim trials by so many. We partnered with USA Swimming to produce the finals heat sheets every day during the competition, produced a special supplement dedicated to the Olympic Swimming Trials called “The Block” in our June 7 edition of IBJ, and Inside Indiana Business with Gerry Dick dedicated an entire show to the event.
Indy continues to innovate and shine on the biggest stages. Now let’s go get the 2028 U.S. Swimming Olympic Team Trials ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics!•
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Feltman is publisher of IBJ and CEO of IBJ Media. Send comments to nfeltman@ibj.com.
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Excellent commentary and deep appreciation for all the IBJ has done and continues to do to promote the business of sport in our town! Hats off the the Sports Corporation and all the volunteers that have made this swimming Olympic trials so amazing! One of the more enjoyable nights I’ve spent watching the exciting sport of highly competitive swimming downtown.