Qwest Center gets U.S. Olympic trials

OMAHA - Qwest Center Omaha will host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, beating out San Antonio and St. Paul, Minn., for the competition.

"Omaha is a wonderful city that has flown under the national radar," USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus said in a statement Tuesday. "It is a city poised to make a stunning debut with a renovated historic district, a revitalized downtown, a vigorous business environment and a sports-mad population ready to embrace our athletes.

"Some might raise their eyebrows at the awarding of our most important event of the Olympic quadrennial to Omaha, but we are confident this is going to be an extraordinary partnership that will serve the best interests of our athletes, their coaches and our sport."

USA Swimming made a formal announcement at a news conference at Qwest Center.

Two temporary 50-meter pools will be installed in the Qwest Center. Fans and sponsors will mix in the adjacent convention center.

Estimated seating capacity for the competition will be 14,000.

A temporary pool was used for the first time at the 2004 trials, set up outdoors in a parking lot alongside the Long Beach (Calif.) Arena.

The eight-day trials will be held June 30-July 7, 2008, determining the team that represents the United States at the Beijing Olympics. USA Swimming Chief Marketing Officer Rod Davis said about 800 athletes are expected at the trials.

Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals and eight medals overall in Athens last year, plans to return for an Olympic encore, along with several other members of the powerful U.S. team.

The bidding process for the 2008 trials began last September. Wielgus said Omaha's bid was the strongest in terms of meeting all of the technical needs and presenting a strong marketing plan.

"The bids from each of the three finalists were outstanding," Wielgus said. "Each one surpassed the winning bid from Long Beach in 2004, which made the decision tougher, but also ensured that our sport would have an event in 2008 that would meet our goals and take the sport to a new level of public awareness and excitement. People are going to be blown away by Omaha."

Dan Morrissey, president of the Omaha Sports Commission, the civic group responsible for funding the event, said one of his organization's goals is to make the city the country's amateur sports capital.

"Serving as host for the 2008 Olympic trials for swimming is a huge, huge step in achieving that goal," Morrissey said.

Mayor Mike Fahey said Omaha's 56 years of experience hosting the College World Series proves the city has what it takes to host such an event.

"We once again have been given the opportunity to host a sporting event growing in popularity," Fahey said. "I know it will have an absolutely wonderful economic impact and more importantly I think we're up to the task."

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On the Net:

USA Swimming: www.usaswimming.org

Omaha Sports Commission: www.omahasports.org