The 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials were awarded to Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, USA Track & Field announced.
USATF’s Board of Directors voted 11-2 to hold the event at Mt. SAC’s Hilmer Lodge Stadium from June 19-28, 2020. Eugene, Oregon and Sacramento were the other two finalists.
“The board was presented with three excellent options for the 2020 Olympic Trials,” board chair Steve Miller said after the meeting in Indianapolis. “The board, and especially our active athletes, were clear in their desire to take the Olympic Trials back to Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles has long been at the center of the Olympics world, hosting the worldwide games in 1932 and again in 1984. Los Angeles and Paris are battling to host the games in 2024 and 2028, and it is believed one of the cities will win one of those years and the other city will host the other year.
Mt. SAC has long been one of the top meets in the country, from an athlete performance perspective as well as from an organizational perspective. With the stadium upgrades currently planned, we are confident Mt. SAC will provide an extraordinary experience for athletes, fans, officials and volunteers.”
The board voted to hold the trials at Mt. SAC based upon its desire to take the sport’s biggest U.S. event in the country’s second-largest media market; the historical strength of the sport in the Los Angeles area; Mt. SAC’s record of hosting elite track events that produce top performances; and the $62 million upgrade to Hilmer Lodge Stadium that will enable the venue to expand to a seating capacity of more than 21,000, according to Jill Geer, the chief public affairs officer of USA Track & Field, the sport’s national governing body.
Mt. SAC’s favorable weather and the area’s robust options for transportation and lodging were other reasons cited by the USATF board, according to Jill Geer, the chief public affairs officer of USA Track & Field, the sport’s national governing body.
This will be the first time the trials have been held in the Los Angeles area since 1984. The women’s trials were held at Hilmer Lodge Stadium in 1968.
The 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials were held in Eugene. Sacramento was the site of USATF’s outdoor championships earlier this month.
—City News Service