Initial Impressions Of The Atmosphere At The 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials

One of the most anticipated American swim meets of all-time is fully underway, with day one prelims kicking off inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday morning.

If there’s one thing that USA Swimming made sure we knew, it’s how unprecedented these trials are, with it being inside a football stadium and all that. The organization, as well as the Indy Sports Corp, have also made sure that Olympic trials was promoted as *the* premier sporting event of the summer in Indianapolis. Posters promoting the meet and its’ swimmers are strewn all over the Indianapolis International Airport, and every fifteen minutes or so there’d be an announcement on the PA speaker about trials — which were sometimes met with applause by airport attendees.

Downtown Indianapolis was also basically turned into a swimming hub, as the makeshift Eiffel Tower, concerts, and other carnival-like pop up stands are strewn all over Georgia Street. When walking down that street, I was also able to ID countless individuals within the swim community, which had taken over the part of the city and made it come alive. As I said to SwimSwam editor-in-chief Braden Keith, the meet was being promoted like the Pacers had made the NBA finals.

However, does the actual meet live up to the hype?

In some ways, the meet feels just like a regular swim meet (though I think it’s fair to point out that my experience watching big swim meets is limited to U.S. Nationals in 2023 at the IUPUI natatorium). There’s still a competition pool and a warmup pool, just like any other meet. However, the difference is that the space around the pool is a lot bigger, and that affects the viewing experience. For one, the distance between the stands and the actual pool are a lot wider than it would be at a regular pool, where the stands were almost right next to the pool. The distance also feels much greater than it was at previous Olympic trials that took place at the CHI Health Center, which normally serves as a basketball arena.

Here’s a compare-and-contrast between the 2024 and 2023 trials pools (photos courtesy of me):

What about the atmosphere? Obviously it’s only prelims, which feels like it’s going to be a more subdued version of what we’ll see during finals. To nobody’s surprise, the stands are not totally full. The stadium sections toward the longer sides of the pool are pretty full, but there’s very noticeable emptiness in the stands on the shorter sides of the pool. Though with the media seating being on that side of the pool, I can admit that the view isn’t *perfect*, but you can still follow the races.

The crowd energy is similar to that of U.S. Nationals last year. There’s a burst of energy every time a heat finishes, and sometimes the cheering is continuous throughout a race, like it was during heat five of the women’s 100 butterfly. And just like a regular meet, there can also be long periods of silence, especially during some of the non circle-seeded heats.

However, the biggest difference between this meet and other meets is that when it gets loud, it’s loud. That showed when big superstars like Regan Smith and Gretchen Walsh swam, but it was especially prevalent when Katie Ledecky, arguably the face of American swimming (especially to a mainstream audience), was in the water. When she finished dominating her 400 free heat, not only were cheer within the stadium the loudest they were all morning, but it was also the only time this session where I felt the noise really echo throughout Lucas Oil Stadium. This feels like a foreshadowing for finals, where the stakes are higher, there are more superstars, and there will likely be more people filling up the stands. The production value will probably be better during finals as well, with USA Swimming doing this to engage the crowd more (as they’ve done in past meets.)

So do I think the intensity from the stands for this meet will reach that of say, a college basketball game between two rival teams (though not many sporting events can match that type of energy in general)? Probably not. But this prelims session showed potential of just how electric things can be during finals, and I’m excited for that. When all is said and done, USA Swimming is probably right — this meet is unprecedented, and it will be one for the history books.