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Swim trials put Omaha on the events map

Harley Schrager chuckled when reflecting on the unlikely marriage between as landlocked a U.S. city as you will find and the nation’s most important swim meet.

“We put together this great bid and figured that if we get it, we’ll figure it out,” said Schrager, who chaired the Omaha Sports Commission when it went on its out-of-nowhere quest to land the 2008 Olympic Swim Trials. “We took a little leap of faith. Lo and behold, USA Swimming came to Omaha.”

That is the story behind the current incarnation of the swim trials, which since making the shape-shifting decision to go to a city that had neither a swimming pedigree nor a history of hosting an Olympic qualifier has returned twice more, building an event that is the envy of amateur sports.

CenturyLink Center Omaha has hosted the last three swimming trials.
Photo by: AP IMAGES

Placing the trials in a specially constructed temporary pool at the center of a modern 17,000-seat arena adjacent to a large convention center, Omaha converted on USA Swimming’s vision for its jewel event in spectacular fashion, incorporating music, pyrotechnics and other entertainment components to attract spectators in record numbers.

With each event, Omaha has exceeded the most ambitious goals USA Swimming set after it made its first site visit to Omaha in 2005. Last year, the trials eclipsed 200,000 in attendance for the eight-day event, doubling the crowds it attracted in Long Beach, Calif., the host in 2004. An “Aqua Zone” interactive area in the convention center attracts about 10,000 per day.

The Long Beach event was a turning point for USA Swimming, which for the first time used a temporary pool constructed by manufacturer Myrtha Pools, allowing them to move the event from the 4,400-seat natatorium that had traditionally hosted it at Indiana University. When representatives from the national governing body visited Omaha, they saw the potential for something even larger.

“They looked at the facilities and they were blown away,” Schrager said. “We could put a competition pool in the arena and a warmup pool in the adjacent convention center. Swimmers could walk 50 yards from the warmup to the competition pool. And we could seat about 14,000, even after putting a swimming pool where the basketball court would be.

“We won the bid and it was like the dog chasing the car. What does he do if he catches it?”

A dozen years later, the connection between swimming and the Olympic Trials has grown so close that both sides are working to bring the event back to Omaha again for 2020, even though the timing of the Tokyo Games could crimp the typical trials calendar, with an earlier start date that could force the trials to collide with the long-standing crown jewel of Omaha, the College World Series.

The city and the NCAA are fine with an overlap of three dates, as they had last year, when the CWS finals coincided with the first weekend of the swim trials. Even with rain forcing an extension of the CWS by a day, the area was able to accommodate both events.

But backing the event up any farther, when more schools are still alive in the CWS, is not feasible for the Omaha hotels that host the teams and their fans. Last year, 49 local hotels combined to book more than 23,000 room nights for visitors associated with the swimming trials.

“There are a lot of moving parts, both nationally and internationally, that have to fall into place with an event of this magnitude, especially in a city that annually hosts the College World Series,” said Wes Hall, president and executive director of the Omaha Sports Commission. “I think we’ve all remained optimistic, because they’ve said they want to come back and we certainly want them back. But everything has to fall into place.”

In the end, the determinant likely will be the deadline set by swimming’s international governing body, FINA, for accepting Olympic qualifiers. The Tokyo Games themselves are scheduled to open July 24, 11 days earlier than last year’s Rio Games opened, though the 2012 London Games opened July 27 and that year’s U.S. trials were still able to be held in Omaha.

If FINA sets a Tokyo entry deadline that forces an overlap of more than three days with the College World Series, USA Swimming almost certainly will have to find another trials home, at least for 2020. A decision is expected soon.

While Omaha has helped redefine the swimming trials as an event experience, the trials have changed the way Omaha is viewed as a sports destination.

“When the swim trials announced that they were going to Omaha, I said, ‘How?’” said Hall, who was early in his sports career operating a cycling event in Virginia at the time. “Well, it’s been done three times, hopefully going for a fourth. That’s created tremendous value for us that spreads to all these other events that are out there that may not have thought of Omaha 20 or even 10 years ago.”

Earlier this month, the city hosted the world’s premier equestrian event. In November, it gets another U.S. Olympic Trials, this time in curling, another sport not typically associated with the Midwest.

“With the competition across the country for everything out there right now, you almost need to find a niche event and try to make it your own,” Hall said. “We’ve had a curling club here in Omaha since 1958, but you don’t think curling and Omaha. So we’re going to have to build awareness. But I think we will.

“Nobody would’ve connected Omaha with swimming, either. And look what we’ve done there.”

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