Indianapolis, Indiana has been knocked out of the running to host the 2016 USA Swimming Olympic Trials. They were informed by USA Swimming on Tuesday, the Indiana Sports Corp. announced in a press release, and USA Swimming has confirmed the same.
“For several decades, Indianapolis has proven to be one of our most successful host cities, and we were excited that the City put forth interest to host the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming at Lucas Oil Stadium,” said Mike Unger, USA Swimming Assistant Executive Director, in a statement. “USA Swimming has enjoyed an excellent partnership with Indiana Sports Corp, working hand-in-hand with them on many events. We look forward to that partnership continuing with future events. The environment for the athletes at Olympic Trials is the highest priority of the United States Olympic Committee and USA Swimming. Lucas Oil Stadium is a fabulous facility and while the space is flexible to accommodate a number of sports and events other than football, it has proven to be challenging for creating an intimate swimming setting around the pool at this time.”
The city was one of 5 remaining finalists to host the meet that will determine the team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. The remaining 4 finalists are San Antonio, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; and Greensboro, North Carolina.
Indianapolis was one of two remaining cities with Olympic Trials hosting experience; they had hosted the trials four different times, including most recently in the year 2000. Their bid was to use the 63,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indianapolis Colts, in some scaled-down capacity for the meet.
“We are obviously disappointed that we will not host the Olympic Swimming Trials, and we would like to thank our great partner USA Swimming for the way they have handled this bid process and communicating this decision to us,” said Allison Melangton, Indiana Sports Corp President. “We believe our City and State are uniquely positioned to host a wide range of events better than our competitors throughout the country. With that comes the realization that we will not win 100 percent of the events we bid for, but we will continue to identify events that provide great opportunity for Indiana and aggressively pursue them. We know how much athletes and fans enjoy the Indianapolis experience and we look forward in particular to hosting the nation’s top swimmers this June for the 2013 World Championship Trials.”
Indianapolis is hosting the Women’s and Men’s NCAA Division I Championships this week and next, though that is at the much smaller IUPUI Natatorium. The Lucas Oil bid would have involved constructing pools on top of the field used for football games.
Indiana Sports Corp. is an advertising partner of SwimSwam.