Birmingham a finalist to host trials for 2028 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The city of Birmingham is one of four finalists to host the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team trials ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles that year.

According to Gene Hallman, the president of Eventive Sports, Birmingham has put together a bid for the trials for men’s and women’s gymnastics, set to take place in early summer 2028.

Hallman said folks have been working on the bid for months with input from officials in Birmingham, Jefferson County and the state of Alabama, including Governor Kay Ivey.

The trials are held every four years ahead of that year’s Summer Olympic Games to select the athletes who will represent Team USA.

Along with the team trials, the package would also include hosting the USA Gymnastics Championships, the Gymnastics for All GymFest, and the USA Gymnastics National Congress & Tradeshow.

USA Gymnastics calls all of these events “2028 Gymnastics City USA”.

Hallman said USA Gymnastics attended the World Games in Birmingham back in 2022 and saw our complex and was impressed with what we had to offer, encouraging a bid on the trials.

Eventive Sports started the process last year by visiting Minneapolis, who hosted the 2024 Olympic gymnastics trials. Hallman said they saw an economic impact of more than $70 million.

He explained that there’s a wide variety of people from across the country that would come to our community, stay in our hotels, and eat at our restaurants if we were chosen.

“The scope of people that are involved who come to our community who otherwise maybe have never been here - it’s tremendous,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s been an event that’s bigger in terms of international presence than this event. It’s going to resonate around the world as to who’s going to represent America in Los Angeles in gymnastics and we hope we’re the host city.”

Hallman believes the city of Birmingham has a realistic shot at landing the gymnastics events. He said the newly renovated Legacy Arena, additional connected convention space for warmups and secondary competition, City Walk BHAM, and the hotels and other things to do located close to the BJCC plays a role in the appeal of Birmingham.

No word on when a choice for the host city will be made.

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