Indianapolis Bidding to Host 2024 Olympic Swim Trials Inside Football Stadium

The 2024 Olympic Trials could be in an even bigger venue than Omaha. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The city of Indianapolis will be bidding to host the 2024 Olympic Swim Trials inside Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts football team, according to a report from the Indy Star and confirmed by the Indiana Sports Corp. The stadium hosts 70,000 people and would be a huge upgrade from the CHI Health Center in Omaha which seats 17,560 and has hosted the Olympic Trials in 2008, 2012 and 2016, and will again host next year.

Indianapolis lasted hosted the Olympic Trials in 2000 at the legendary IU Natatorium, one of the swimming landmarks in the United States. Indianapolis served as Trials host in 1984, 1992, 1996 and 2000 and has frequently hosted the nation’s best swimmers for competitions.

St. Louis has also publicly announced a bid to host the 2024 Trials in a domed stadium.

The 2024 Olympic Games will be held in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11. Dates for the 2024 Olympic Swim Trials have not been finalized but have generally been about five weeks before the Games.

Since the Indiana Sports Corp. was founded in 1979, Indianapolis has hosted more than 450 national and international sports events. Those include the 1987 Pan American Games, 2012 Super Bowl and world championships in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, indoor track and field, and rowing.

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Drew Boyd

3 years ago

Gilles

Gilles Gutnecht

3 years ago

Reply to Drew Boyd

Drew Boyd that’d be nuts

Jenny Ochs

3 years ago

❤️ still close

Jenoa Olson

3 years ago

Ann Hawkey… there’s competition! ?

Ann Hawkey

3 years ago

Reply to Jenoa Olson

Jenoa Olson uh oh! At least it’s not too far.

Jennifer Gregg Pitchford

3 years ago

Cool, but why not go back to the Nat?

Rob Richardson

3 years ago

Reply to Jennifer Gregg Pitchford

Jennifer Gregg Pitchford way too small for all the people that want to watch the Trials live. They sell out 17K seats in a week!

Rob Richardson

3 years ago

Sam-April Hewson remember when I presented this idea to USA Swimming in 2015? State Farm (aka Cardinal) Stadium in Glendale, AZ would be perfect. The grass field rolls out on wheels and you could put the pool on the concrete surface. The main issue they had (then) was the stadium seats are farther away than a basketball arena, but it works for The Final Four!

Nick Cittadinni

3 years ago

Reply to Rob Richardson

Rob Richardson The sport has outgrown Omaha. It’s expensive to get to and way to difficult to get a hotel nearby not to mention the college World Series is going on across the street.

Indy could be really nice. Obviously a huge stadium but if they put the competition pool on one end of field and hung something up to cut off the whole other half of the field I think they could make it look like it smaller than it is and still add thousands of seats.

Rob Richardson

3 years ago

Reply to Rob Richardson

Nick Cittadinni yup that was my proposal! Get the big screen, all the fancy club seating, bars, etc. could be a great event!! Cardinal stadium is next to a huge shopping complex – tons of restaurants and more hotels everyday