How a soccer stadium was transformed into a swimming mecca for Olympic athletes
You may have heard that the Final Fours of college basketball and college hockey (Detroit in 2010) are held in giant football stadiums.
But what about swimming? Well, that will be the case when the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials begin Saturday through June 23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, home of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.
The stadium will have three temporary pools – two 50m and one 25m – where swimmers can compete for a place on the Olympic team in front of around 30,000 fans.
The past four Olympic Trials have been held at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska, a basketball arena with a capacity of approximately 14,000.
Fire trucks will pump roughly 860,000 gallons of water into the pool, a job that will cost seven figures, according to swimswam.com.
Qualifying rounds for each event will take place each day from 11am-2pm, with finals from 8pm-11pm to determine the athletes who will represent Team USA in Paris.
The first and second place finishers in each event will qualify for the Olympic team, while the third through sixth place finishers in the 100m freestyle and 200m freestyle will qualify for the relay team in Paris.
U.S. Open golf final qualifiers announced
This weekend's U.S. Open in North Carolina will not only determine the winner of golf's third major, but also serve as the final qualifying tournament to determine which golfers will travel to Paris.
Qualification is determined by highest world ranking. As of Monday, the top four U.S. golfers were Scottie Scheffler (No. 1), Tokyo gold medalist Xander Schauffele (No. 2), Wyndham Clark (No. 4) and Collin Morikawa (No. 7).
Patrick Cantlay (9th), Max Homa (10th), Sahith Teegala (10th) and Brian Harman (11th) are not far behind the top four but will need to perform well at the U.S. Open to have any chance.
USA selects beach volleyball team for Paris
The team that will represent the United States in beach volleyball at the Paris Games has been selected.
The duo of Chase Budinger and Miles Evans have been named to the second men's team to compete in the Olympics, joining the duo of Andy Benesh and Miles Partin.
The two U.S. women's teams have already been decided, with Kelly Chen and Sarah Hughes and Taryn Cross and Kristen Nass already qualified.
Since the sport's introduction in 1996, at least one U.S. men's or women's team has won a medal at every Olympic Games.
This year's tournament will be held in a temporary stadium being built near the base of the Eiffel Tower.
