When it was announced that the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials would be held at Lucas Oil Stadium, one question came to mind: Could a swim meet draw the same attendance as an NFL game?
The answer is, unsurprisingly, no, with a few caveats.
Firstly, the stadium's full capacity of 70,000 was not used – based on the layout of the competition and warm-up pools, only around 30,000 seats were available per session.
Secondly, the tournament was held over nine days, with morning qualifying and evening sessions on all days except the final day, and even at such a high level it would have been unrealistic to expect full houses for the qualifying sessions.
Still, attendance at Lucas Oil Stadium averaged 55.9% of capacity across all 17 sessions, or about 16,777 people per session. That figure exceeds the maximum capacity of 15,000 people at CHI Health Center in Omaha, the site of the U.S. Trials since 2008.
Attendance by Session – U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming
| Day | Qualifiers | Final game |
| June 15 | 16009 | 20689 |
| June 16 | 18342 | 18161 |
| June 17 | 13940 | 16571 |
| June 18 | 14439 | 15476 |
| June 19th | 17414 | 22209 |
| June 20 | 15080 | 17742 |
| June 21 | 13983 | 18444 |
| June 22 | 15119 | 18808 |
| June 23 | – | 12776 |
Notably, the first final broke the swimming meet attendance record, which was broken just four days later, on June 19. Both matches coincided with the appearance of some of Team USA's best-known stars. Katie Ledecky He won the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle on each day.
However, those were the only two sessions where attendance exceeded 19,000, with the third-highest attendance being 18,808 for the final on June 22. It is worth noting that the two days with attendances exceeding 20,000 included sponsored spectators at the National Parks Recreation Championships on June 15 and many employees of Lilly, the major corporate sponsor of the U.S. team on June 19.
In total, attendance over the nine days was 285,202, just over 250,000. SwimSwam reached out to USA Swimming for clarification on whether these figures were based on ticket sales or on scans at the gates, but did not receive a response.
For comparison, we also looked at the number of spectators at the qualifying tournaments for other popular Olympic sports.
The U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials took place from June 21 to June 30 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. The venue has hosted every USATF Trials since 2008 and also hosted them three times between 1972 and 1980.
After a two-year renovation from 2018 to 2020, Hayward Field's capacity was expanded to 12,650 fans, with the ability to nearly double that capacity with the installation of temporary seating.
The USATF Olympic Trials attracts an average of 11,926 spectators per day, with the majority of the action taking place at night. Track and field reaches an average of 94.2% capacity over the eight days, based on permanent seating capacity, with attendance peaking on the final day of competition.
Attendance by Session – U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track and Field
*June 25th and 26th were practice days so no competitions were held.
| Day | Attendance |
| June 21 | 11227 |
| June 22 | 11852 |
| June 23 | 12108 |
| June 24th | 12180 |
| June 27 | 11851 |
| June 28 | 11775 |
| June 29th | 12174 |
| June 30 | 12243 |
Finally, the gymnastics competition was a much shorter event, held over four days from June 27 to June 30. The trials took place at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which has a capacity of 20,000.
Tickets for the women's events on June 28 and 30 were reportedly sold out. As with the swimming trials, this may be a matter of star power. Simone Biles She achieved top results in floor exercise, vault and the individual all-around, earning her a spot on the Olympic team for the third time.
Using Target Center's capacity of 20,000, gymnastics events averaged 72.3% capacity.
Attendance by Session – U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics
| Day | Attendance |
| June 27 | 11258 |
| June 28 | 16153 |
| June 29th | 14180 |
| June 30 | 16300 |
Ultimately, it's unclear whether USA Swimming can be judged a success based on numbers alone. Although it outperformed other similarly popular Olympic sports in terms of pure attendance, the venue may have been a bit too large for the event, as the average capacity across all sessions was just 55.9%.
To compare the final numbers, only 36 athletes competed in the gymnastics trials, but 956 competed in the swimming trials. Despite (theoretically) having more than 25 times as many families filling the stands, USAG fans turned out well in nearly every swimming qualifying session, as well as the final session on June 18th.
It's not a perfect comparison — swimming trials are more than twice as long as gymnastics trials — but it's something USA Swimming might want to keep in mind as it prepares for its home Olympics in 2028.
