How a football stadium was turned into a swimming mecca for Olympic hopefuls
You’ve heard of Final Fours in college basketball and even college hockey (Detroit in 2010) being held inside cavernous football stadiums.
But swimming? Yes, that will be reality when the U.S. Olympic swimming trials take place from Saturday through June 23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
Three temporary pools — two of them 50 meters and the other 25 meters — have been installed inside the stadium so swimmers can compete for a spot on the Olympic team in front of roughly 30,000 fans.
The last four Olympic trials took place at CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska, a basketball arena with a capacity of roughly 14,000 fans.
Fire trucks are supposed to pump roughly 860,000 gallons of water into the pools for an endeavor that will cost seven figures, according to swimswam.com.
Preliminaries in events will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day, with finals being held from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. to determine which swimmers will represent Team USA in Paris.
Swimmers that finish first and second in each event will qualify for the Olympic team. Those who finish third through sixth in the 100 and 200 freestyle events can qualify for the relay teams in Paris.
U.S. Open to determine last qualifiers for golf
Not only will this weekend’s U.S. Open in North Carolina determine the winner of golf’s third major, but it will also be the final qualifying tournament to determine which golfers head to Paris.
Qualifiers are determined by highest world ranking. As of Monday, the four-highest ranked golfers for the U.S. were Scottie Scheffler (No. 1), Tokyo gold medalist Xander Schauffele (No. 2), Wyndham Clark (No. 4) and Collin Morikawa (No. 7).
Patrick Cantlay (No. 9), Max Homa (No. 10), Sahith Theegala (No. 10) and Brian Harman (No. 11) weren’t too far behind the first four, but will need good performances at the U.S. Open to have a chance.
U.S. rounds out beach volleyball teams for Paris
The teams that will represent the U.S. in beach volleyball at the Paris games are set.
The duo of Chase Budinger and Miles Evans were named the second men’s team that will head to the Olympics, joining the tandem of Andy Benesh and Miles Partain.
The two U.S. teams on the women’s side were already set, with the duos of Kelly Cheng and Sarah Hughes, and Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, already qualified.
At least one men’s or women’s team from the U.S. has won a medal at every Olympics since the sport was introduced in 1996.
This year’s competition will take place at a temporary stadium that will be constructed near the base of the Eiffel Tower.
