Carmel, Indiana has taken a page out of the playbook of Olympic Trials host city Indianapolis and given a handful of the town’s main streets honorary names reflecting their Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers.
Carmel, which has dubbed itself “Swim City, USA,” qualified three swimmers for the US Olympic Swimming Team in addition to head coach Chris Plumb, who was named as part of the coaching staff.
The honorary street signs will be near the Midtown Plaza commercial area of Carmel, running along 2nd St SW and on the Monon Blvd. loop between 1st St SW and W Elm St. Carmel Swim Club’s main location is not far away.
The streets will be renamed until the conclusion of the Olympic Games.
Ironically, nearby is Phelps Way, which is named not after the most decorated Olympian of all time Michael Phelps, but rather John Phelps, a local entrepreneur and one of the founders of Bethlehem, Indiana, which was the original name of Carmel. Phelps’ log cabin is believed to be the first home built in Carmel.
Carmel is the only city with three hometown heroes on the US Olympic Swim Team as defined by USA Swimming; Nashville also boasts two thanks to sisters Alex and Gretchen Walsh.
Siblings Alex Shackell, a rising senior in high school, and Aaron Shackell, a rising sophomore in college, both trained in Carmel in the leadup to the Olympic Trials. Aaron spent the fall semester at Cal before returning home to train.
Alex is qualified to swim the 200 fly individually and as part of the American 800 free relay; Aaron is qualified to swim the 400 free individually.
Drew Kibler trained primarily under Bob Bowman in the leadup to Trials, but attended Carmel High School, but spent some time in the last few years training back in Carmel amid a collegiate career at Texas and his pro career. He qualified to swim on the 800 free relay, marking his second straight Olympic Games.
Another Carmel High School graduate Rajeev Ram has been named to the US Olympic team in tennis where he will play men’s doubles. Ram will also be honored with a street dedication.
Local businesses have leaned into the city’s swimming reputation. SunKing Brewery, located near Midtown Plaza, is releasing commemorative SwimCity, USA pint glasses and SwimCity, USA t-shirts are being sold at a local business – All Things Carmel.
Carmel is a large suburb with an estimated population of just over 100,000. Carmel High School is one of the largest in America with enrollment of 5,300 occupying 1 million square feet of building on a 55 acre campus.
How was Carmel named Swim City USA?
The Mayor probably decided to do it.
They have a very, very enthusiastic PR person who has been pushing it really hard.
It’s probably going to stick, too.
What other towns would be in the running?
HMMM that’s actually a really thought-provoking question. Maybe we’ll throw it out on social and see what people say.
There’s obviously a lot of other cities around that have produced lots of star swimmers (as Charles Hartley reminds us, Phoebe Bacon and Katie Ledecky both went to the same elementary school), but none of them sort of *feel* it the way Carmel does, with the high school state titles in addition to their penchant for producing National Teamers, both developing and attracting talent.
Long Beach, CA I was told is called the “Aquatic Capital of the World”…..
No street changes in Montgomery Co., MD, but definitely still swim crazy. Ledecky, Bacon and Gemmell all went to the same high school in Bethesda. Gemmell is just one neighborhood pool over from where Mike Barrowman (‘92 Gold) and Dan Veatch (‘88) grew up in Montgomery Square. And all of them are just a stone’s throw from where Jack Conger broke his high school records pre-Olympics.
Very cool!