MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Competitors, families, judges, and officials from all over the country joined residents for the 2022 USA Diving Winter National Championships recently held at the Mylan Park Aquatic Center. Visit Mountaineer Country Convention and Visitors Bureau (VMCCVB) president and CEO, Susan Riddle, said the feedback was largely positive and future events are being explored.
This was the largest event of its kind to be held there. Riddle said there was considerable pressure to live up to past host cities like Greensboro, N.C., and Bloomington, Indiana.
A bid has been submitted to host the 2024 Olympic Diving Trials, and that decision is expected in January 2023.
“I’m sure all those things play to our advantage,” Riddle said. “This is the first time we’ve ever submitted a bid for an event like this and received it, let alone bid on the Olympic trials, so that certainly would be getting the golden ring.”
Hosting the 2022 USA Diving Winter National Championships has shown the sports community that the area can accommodate large events. Now, Riddle said, the Mylan Park Aquatic Center is being considered for more events, bringing more exposure and opportunity to the region.
“They’ve already talked to us about bringing a huge event here in May, and we’re working with them to see if that’s even a possibility,” Riddle said. “I had a 2-and-a-half-hour meeting with the president of USA Diving (Lee Michaud) who is interested in developing a longer-term relationship in the future.”
For the 2024 Olympic Diving Trials, the application, which would normally take as much as six months to complete, was put together by a team from Mylan Park, the Monongalia County Commission, area municipalities, West Virginia University, WVU Hospital, the West Virginia Department of Tourism, and the VMCCVB in just 27 days.
“A custom-made wooden box that looked like a giant envelope and said, “This is your official invitation to West Virginia,” and when you open it up to gate the application and all the swag we gave them, it plays Country Roads,” Riddle said.
Riddle said the other venue in the running for the 2024 Olympic Diving Trials is the University of Tennessee.
“We’ve done our absolute best regardless of how this may or may not go,” Riddle said. “They are already talking to us about bringing other national qualifying events to Morgantown, West Virginia.”
Tickets for the 2022 USA Diving Winter National Championships were also a “hot find” in comparison to the 2021 event held at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center on the campus of Indiana University, according to Riddle.
“Just at the gate and advance ticket sales from organizations and individuals, we’re 300 percent of what they experienced last year,” Riddle said. “So, they were very pleased with the attendance.”
Now, the staffs of the Mylan Park Aquatic Center and the VMCCVB can take a break while awaiting word from the U.S. Olympic Future Host Commission.
“We’re waiting to hear, and we’ve learned a lot of great stuff so far,” Riddle said. “Regardless of how this comes out, we have truly benefited from this process already.”