INDIANAPOLIS — Tickets are still available for the 2024 USA Swim Trials, which will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium starting June 15 next summer.
Single-day tickets start at $49 and can be purchased here, through USA Swimming. Single-day tickets are good for any nine days of a specific event, and include prelims and finals swims.
The ticket structure marks a departure from previous trials in Omaha, Nebraska, which gave spectators the ability to purchase full-day, entire session tickets. Bulk three-day sales for the 2024 Trials just wrapped up.
Visitors can also expect downtown fanfare, which includes Toyota Aqua Zone, the fan fest in the convention center, and USA Swimming live – which is a downtown activation.
Organizers are aiming to make history as 2024 will mark the first time an NFL football stadium will play host to U.S. Olympic Trials. If the stands of Lucas Oil Stadium get packed with swim fans the way Indiana Sports Corp and USA Swimming officials hope, Day One of trials would mark the largest swim meet in history.
“We’re working to having that first day of the trials on June 15 be the biggest swim meet ever in history. Make the Guinness World Record. Working to try and make that the biggest swim meet in history," said Dan Gliot, with Indiana Sports Corp.
Three temporary pools – two 50-meter and one 25-meter – will be installed over the field in Lucas Oil Stadium
It wouldn't be a stretch for Indianapolis, which has experience transforming another major arena for professional swimming competitions. For the 2004 FINA World Championships at the former Conseco Fieldhouse, a competition pool was constructed atop the basketball court. That was a short course pool though. Indiana Sports Corp said they drew on some of those same lessons nearly 20 years later.
"It just proves Indianapolis has what it takes to host something like this," Gliot said.
And Indiana swimmers won't be sitting on the sidelines while it happens. Swimmers with Hoosier ties will be well-represented at the upcoming U.S Swim Trials.
Data compiled from the popular swimming magazine SwimSwam shows Indiana is positioned to be a powerhouse at trials.
For the men, Indiana is tied with California as the state with the second-highest number of athletes at trials. Twenty-eight Hoosier men will compete in a total of 71 swims at trials. Indiana has the second-highest number of women competing at swimming trials as well with 20 women competing in 41 swims.
The Indiana Swim Club, based in Bloomington, boasts the third highest number of qualified athletes in the country for both men and women.
Nine women swimmers from Indiana Swim Club have qualified for at least one event at trials, while 13 men have qualified for at least one event. The Indiana Swim Club men are tied with the Texas Longhorns for third-highest number of qualified athletes so far.
And the club with the highest number of swimmers that's not attached to a university on the women's side? Carmel Swim Club.
The team boasts five women who have qualified in at least one event: Alex Shackell, Berit Berglund, Lynsey Brown, Ellie Clarke and Molly Sweeney. Shackell is among just 13 women who have qualified to try for a shot at Team USA in at least six events.
Carmel Swim Club is also represented among U.S. men who have qualified in at least six events, with Alex's older brother, Aaron Shackell, having also qualified for six events in 2024 so far. Indiana Swim Club's Brendan Burns has qualified for five events, according to SwimSwam.
The swimmers will step into an already-storied history. The first time Indiana hosted Olympic swimming trials was nearly 100 years ago, in 1924 at Broad Ripple Park. In an interesting parallel, those athletes were also working to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Indiana University Natatorium, in Indianapolis, has played host to a majority of them. It was where a 15-year-old Michael Phelps made his first Olympic team in Indianapolis alongside Tom Malchow in the 200 meter butterfly. Phelps became the youngest male swimmer in 68 years, and would go onto place fifth overall at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.