The competition will be fierce at next year's U.S. Olympic trials for gymnastics, where the country's top gymnasts will battle for spots on the American team for the 2024 Paris Games. Bringing the event to Minneapolis turned out to be nearly as arduous.
Minnesota Sports and Events announced Tuesday that the 2024 Olympic trials will be held at Target Center, while the U.S. championships for rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling and acrobatic gymnastics and the USA Gymnastics national congress and trade show are coming to the convention center. The Olympic trials will be June 27-30, capping a nine-day event expected to draw 6,000 participants to Minneapolis.
Li Li Leung, president and CEO of USA Gymnastics, said a large group of cities vied to host the Olympic trials for the glamour sport of the Summer Games. MNSE pursued it hard for many months, getting a boost in May when the Legislature approved funding to help the organization bring major sports events to the state.
Tuesday, MNSE got its gold-medal moment, hosting a splashy celebration at Target Center to celebrate its big win.
"This is an amazing day,'' said MNSE President Wendy Blackshaw. "It's been a long time coming.
"These major events bring economic impact, social impact, reputational impact at a time when we still need to rebuild. So we are so excited this is going to be coming to Minneapolis. We recognize this is the biggest stage in gymnastics, and we promise you this will be the best Olympic team trials you've ever had.''
Suni Lee, the St. Paul gymnast who won the women's all-around title at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, sat next to Gov. Tim Walz at Tuesday's event. Lee, 20, has resumed training at Midwest Gymnastics Center in Little Canada in the hope of making her second Olympic team.
She won two other medals in Tokyo — silver in the team event and bronze on uneven bars — before going to Auburn for two seasons of college gymnastics. Lee had her training interrupted by a kidney ailment last spring, but she could return to elite competition later this summer and hopes to contend for a place on the U.S. team for the world championships in October.
In 2021, she earned her place on the Olympic roster at the trials in St. Louis. Lee said she was "excited and proud'' to have the 2024 trials in her home state.
"Watching the Olympians who came before me was such an inspiration when I was growing up,'' Lee said. "It means so much to know the young athletes of Minnesota will have a chance to be inspired by the best gymnasts in America."
Five women and five men will be named to the Olympic team at the conclusion of the trials, for which tickets are already on sale. The competition in Minneapolis also will factor into the Olympic teams for rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline, with performances at the U.S. championships part of the selection process.
Lee is not the only gymnast with Minnesota connections who is pursuing a spot at the trials. Former Gopher Shane Wiskus of Spring Park, part of the U.S. men's team that finished fifth at the Tokyo Games, remains on the national team and is training in Florida. Two women who train with the Twin City Twisters club in Champlin, Elle Mueller of Ham Lake and Lexi Zeiss of Omaha, Neb., are on the U.S. women's national team.
Erica Foster of Chanhassen is expected to contend for an Olympic berth in rhythmic gymnastics. A member of the national team, she won five bronze medals at the past two U.S. championships and was on the U.S. team for the 2021 world championships. Foster, Mueller and Zeiss were among the athletes who performed at Tuesday's announcement.
The U.S. championships for rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling are June 22-26, 2024, and the congress and trade show are June 27-29. Leung said it will be the first time all those events have been held at the same time in the same city.
Blackshaw thanked the many politicians at Tuesday's announcement, saying Minneapolis would not have won the Olympic trials without state government support. MNSE, whose mission is to bring major sports events to Minnesota, received $6 million in the Explore Minnesota tourism budget passed last month. Blackshaw previously estimated the cost of the Olympic trials at $5 million, to be covered by public and private funds.
Leung said the Olympic trials are the biggest single event staged by USA Gymnastics. When the organization was considering host-city bids, she said it wanted "a dynamic city representative of our sport and the country at large,'' and local organizers with the experience and enthusiasm to stage a major event.
"There were a lot of cities with their sights set on this,'' Leung said. "It was a tough competition. Minneapolis had just a fantastic package all around, and we could not be more excited to be coming here.''
Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.
