INDIANAPOLIS — More than 1,000 U.S. swimming competitors, ranging from the age of 14 to 46, convened in Indianapolis with the same goal in mind: qualify for the Paris Olympics.
By the end of the nine-day U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis, 46 swimmers secured a coveted spot — an achievement years in the making.
This all took place inside Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. Locals say that it’s the building that Hall of Famer Peyton Manning built — and there’s even a statue of him on the north end.
For the first time, the Olympic swimming trials were held inside a stadium. And that move was ultimately a massive success.
USA Swimming officials said more than 285,000 fans attended the nine-day event from June 15-23, an increase of 60% from the previous semi trials. More than that, there were multiple nights with more than 20,000 fans — highlighted by 22,209 on hand for the finals on June 19.
“One of USA Swimming's main goals, aside from remaining the best swimming nation in the world, is to promote our sport and expose it to new audiences,” USA Swimming President and CEO Tim Hinchey III said. “As a host city, Indianapolis has exceeded our expectations, with the most tickets we've ever sold for an event.
"This overwhelming support is a testament to the growing popularity of the top Olympic sport and a promising sign for its growth.”
Big events are nothing new to Indianapolis, which annually hosts the Indianapolis 500 — the largest one-day sports event in the world.
This stadium, specifically, hosted Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, multiple NCAA men’s Final Fours, the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship along with the Big Ten Football Championship game annually.
Oh, and Taylor Swift chose to finish The Era Tours in the U.S. and at Lucas Oil Stadium with three shows Nov. 1-3.
The idea to put swimming pools inside the stadium was hatched almost three years ago. Inside a meeting room at their downtown office, members of Indiana Sports Corp went over the blueprint for what it was take to execute such a bold idea.
Where would they put the pools? How many seats were needed? What is the walkway for athletes in the stadium? Is this truly feasible?
“A lot of thought went into where everything was within the stadium and then what the pool layout was, and then we got to work pretty quickly,” Sarah Myer, Chief of Staff & Strategy at Indiana Sports Corp told The Sporting Tribune.
She served as the co-director of this event.
“You have to see it to believe it, and I think what the athletes saw was they had plenty of space, they had great hospitality, they had fans,” she continued. “Probably the biggest part for them was to feel the energy in the stadium for their sport — finally — and I think they've felt that before, but not to this magnitude.
“Walking out on a deck, on a football field, and then to see that crowd. We had over 22,000 people on Wednesday night, and that is something that they have wanted for their sport for so long, and that just inspires them to swim.”
More than that, it was about celebrating the sport and all of those involved. Georgia Street, locally just a few blocks north of the stadium, was closed off to cars and it became the hub for this festival.
There was a temporary Michelob Ultra bar installed with TVs to watch the action, and a variety of food trucks filled the space — ice cream, snow cones, BBQ, and even a few coffee spots. There were activities for kids, a cool-down station, and several photo opportunities, including one very special one.
At the west end, next to the Indiana Convention Center, they built a 66-foot replica Eiffel Tower — comprised of 1,600 parts equaling 14,000 pounds of Indiana steel.
And, as you would expect, it was a big hit.
Inside the stadium, the most overwhelming part of the build was obtaining approval to allow for water inside. Millions of gallons.
It was truly a team effort. Indiana Sports Corp. worked with three companies — Myrtha Pools, Dodd Technologies Inc., and Spear Corp. — on the pool build and the deck build, and with both ahead of schedule, that helped remove the natural anxiety.
“And then as soon as the word was getting out and people were coming, we had walk-up sales that were fantastic every single day,” Myer said. “Typically, what you see for an event is that that tapers off a bit, and it did not.
“We had record sales on Friday night, and that was something that we didn't think we would see, but it was people who were seeing what was happening in Indianapolis and coming to town to be a part of it.”
And those swimmers didn’t just hear it, they felt it.
Katie Ledecky, queen of the 1500m freestyle: “We got up on the blocks for my heat, and I thought that the noise had died down, and it got louder again. I started shaking, and I went down for take your mark. ‘Relax, Katie, relax, relax; don't false start, don't false start.’ It was kind of this energy that I hadn't felt at this kind of a meet, even an international meet, before.”
Eric Neuberger is the stadium director and his love for the sport, including the fact that he swam at nearby at Indiana University, helped in the executing the smallest of details.
It took 60 semi-trucks to load everything into the event level and then four weeks to construct two 50m pools and one 25m pool. It required 78,000 square feet of decking, 2,000 sheets of plywood and 5,000 linear feet of piping.
The water — 1.8 million gallons — was sourced from the nearby White River, cleaned and then treated for competition by Citizens Energy Group. And then it will be cleaned once more before being sent back to the White River.
On top of that, there was a LED board hung in the middle that was 20-times the size of the one used in 2020 and new digital board to make each athlete introduction look and feel big. The giant video screens kept fans updated on timing and there was even an elevator installed on the south end of the deck for individuals to slowly rise up, then showered in celebration.
“The crowd was incredible,” Regan Smith said after winning the 100m backstroke. “So that was super fun. And the interesting thing about swimming under a JumboTron is when you're on your back, you can see yourself because there's screens and you can see the race going on.”
A few days before the trials ended, the Los Angeles Olympic Committee announced their updated venue plans for the 2028 Olympics and, no surprise, SoFi Stadium will become the largest swimming venue in Olympic history with 38,000 seats.
They saw what Indy did and plan to duplicate it. Myer said they hadn’t heard from LA28 yet, but they did from others.
“We heard from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee as a lot of their board and their staff were in town," Myer said. "They said that this event truly changed the sport of swimming.
“So to hear that, and we do Final Fours, we do Big Ten Football Championships, we don't get to really hear often that we changed a sport, and to change a sport and get more people attracted to a sport that can save your life is pretty impactful."
And that is precisely the point. Exposure is critical.
“I hope there are some young swimmers out there that get excited about today and will be at a trials four years from now in L.A. or at the Olympics in L.A. and beyond that as well,” Ledecky added.
On Monday, after the conclusion of the team trials, Olympic qualifiers remained in town. Ordinarily, athletes will leave after they’re done competing, but USA Swimming made sure that they all stayed together and were first honored together Sunday.
Then, they practiced as a team and received their Team USA gear at a locker inside the Colts locker room.
“The venue is fantastic,” Caeleb Dressel said. “It is one of the most beautiful pools I’ve swum in.
"I’ve been in some great venues, and being in a football stadium is awesome, but I cannot stress enough how beautiful and how clean (it is); everything about the water. It really is a beautiful pool.”
Crazy this is real. Thank you INDY! One of the greatest 9 days of swimming I’ve ever been a part of pic.twitter.com/QglbXCPR8j
— Cody Miller (@swimiller) June 25, 2024
Up next, the U.S. Olympic Swim Team will unite in North Carolina on July 3 for training camp. Olympic competition at the Paris La Defense Arena begins on July 27.
And while their work is over, the tear down is a week-long process. Pools drained, decks torn down, then both shipped off to their permanent home after several world records were set.
The competition pool will be moved up to Fort Wayne, Ind. while the warm up pools are shipped off to the Cayman Islands. As for the stadium, it will be cleaned and then prepared to have brand new turf installed before the upcoming NFL season.
“We're just so excited about how everything went," Myer said, "and the athletes feel really fantastic before their prep for Paris."