In Indianapolis this summer, the U.S. Olympic trials won’t just be celebrated within the confines of Lucas Oil Stadium, where the actual swimming takes place.
Indiana Sports Corp announced Monday the instillation of “USA Swimming LIVE Presented by Purdue University” which the organization describes as a “ten-day family-friend extravaganza” that consists of a replica Eiffel Tower, a series of concerts, and a “Swim Up” bar featuring pool party and swim lane decor.
The replica Eiffel Tower, a 66-foot and 19,000-pound version of the actual tower in Paris, France, is currently under construction and will be placed at the intersection of Georgia Street and Capitol Avenue from June 10 to 23, with the latter date being the conclusion of trials. The tower will have lights installed on it that glow at night. Likewise, the Swim Up Bar will be situated in the center block of Georgia street.
From June 14 to 23, free concerts will take place on the OneAmerica Financial Stage on Georgia Street. With the exception of the June 14 concert, which runs from 8 to 9:30 p.m. eastern time, every other concert will run from 5:30 to 7 p.m — ending an hour before finals sessions for trials begin.
Full List Concert Lineup
- June 14: The Main Squeeze, a funk band based in Bloomington, Indiana
- June 15: lovelytheband, a Billboard Music Award-nominated indie pop/rock band best known for their 2017 single “Broken”
- June 16: John Driskell Hopkins, best known for being a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning country band “Zac Brown Band”
- June 17: The Motet, a Denver-based American funk, soul and jazz group best known for their annual Halloween concerts
- June 18: Saved by the 90s, a band that specializes in doing covers of songs from the 1990s
- June 19: Brittney Spencer, an American country singer best known for her viral cover of “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen
- June 20: Taylor Swift Night: The Taylor Party, which that will feature music from the singer-songwriter
- June 21:Fastball, a Grammy-nominated rock band based in Austin, Texas
- June 22: Not announced yet
- June 23: Six Foot Blonde, an Indiana-based indie pop band
The U.S. Olympic trials will take place from June 15 to 23. Indy Sports Corp expects the event to have over 250,000 fans in attendance and generate more than $100 million in economic impact.
Wow. Quite disheartening to see so many ableists in here. It’s embarrassing how the U.S. treats its Paralympic swimmers compared to other countries. After 2021 trials, the Paralympic swimmers returned to their home teams to continue training on their own. Meanwhile, the Olympic swimmers enjoyed a three-week training trip to Hawaii. So this whole “One Team” marketing ploy is a total joke.
tik tok rizz party🔥
Why are they having a swim meet at a Taylor Swift Rizz party? 🤔
Get Tay Tay to perform between sessions, guaranteed sell out at Lucas Oil
It still blows my mind that USA Swimming won’t include para swimmers. It’s done in AUS, GB, and CAN and would only generate more viewers, ticket sales, and entry fees and take nothing away from the other athletes.
I know I’m going to get slaughtered for this, but someone needs to say it and everyone needs to hear it:
If you want to put Para swimmers in the meet for some moral/ethical reason, then fine, do it. If you think that including Para swimmers will generate more revenue, you are absolutely incorrect. Extending the prelims sessions from 3 hours to 4.5 hours and the finals sessions from 2 hours to 3 hours will be a net-loss on the marketability of the event.
I’m sorry, but 9 days of 5 hours of swim meet every day is already too long. They just don’t need to be made longer. US Para just needs to work on making their Trials meet… Read more »
Additionally I don’t think that everyone wants to watch para swimming.
“…everyone” should be spelled “anyone.”
I didn’t want to get cancelled
There’s a good way to do it and a bad way to do it.
As of now, it’d be like just airdropping in a random D3 conference final heat in between other events – we ain’t know these people! And the whole reason we like sports is the stories, so. If we had more para swimming in other big meets, we could build up to actually knowing what we’re seeing.
I don’t know if it’d be acceptable to para athletes, but the same way Pro Swim meets put C and D finals after the A and Bs, that might be a good way to get para athletes at these meets. (Tho maybe before finals at Trials, because it’s real late.)
Para swimming tanks the atmosphere of any swim meet, I watched I guy take 1 minute and 10 seconds to swim a 50 breastroke on his own at GB Trials, you think that’s bringing more viewers and more revenue to the sport? Don’t act like it would benefit swimming, it benefits you as a para swimmer to force viewers to watch you when they tune in to see the able bodied swimmers.
Hogwash
Wow! Would love to see you attempt to swim, much less live with a severe disability. You wouldn’t last 5 minutes with the ableism and inaccessibility in this world! Just a stark reminder anyone can become disabled at anytime. All it takes is one illness, one car crash, one unfortunate accident for you to join one of the most marginalized groups in the world. Your comments are no different than how racists in the 40s were to POC. No one “wanted” to swim with POC then but now we have stellar athletes like Simone Manual.
USA Swimming does not oversee governance or selection of the Paralympic team. That falls under the umbrella of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Simply a matter of governance.
Six Foot Blonde is always fun.
Has there been any new developments on this China saga?
The Main Squeeze is really good, if you like funky music. I’ve been following them on YouTube for a few years.