Fans can see Olympic, Paralympic athletes on pre-Tokyo five-city tour

With a focus on building excitement for this summer’s Tokyo Games and bringing Team USA athletes closer to fans, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee will announce Tuesday a national five-city festival tour that kicks off with the 100 Days Out celebration in New York on April 15.

While the USOPC has hosted fan festivals leading up to previous Games, this year’s Team USA Summer Fest presented by DeVry University will have a 25 percent larger footprint and will feature athlete meet and greets, sport demonstrations, concerts and giveaways.

The first stop of Summer Fest lands in New York’s Times Square on April 15, with more than 75 athletes  expected to attend, representing a variety and Olympic and Paralympic sports.

Luella Chavez D’Angelo, chief marketing and communications officer at the USOPC, views Summer Fest as a unique opportunity for fans to engage with athletes and the Olympic movement.

“The main reason that this project was developed was we wanted our fans of the United States or anyone visiting the United States to feel like they can experience the Olympics even if they cannot attend the Tokyo Games,” she said. “They get a real feel for learning what the athlete has to do in their own personal life to actually get here, how excited the athlete is, what their sport actually looks like.

"One of the things that’s exciting for us about the Tokyo Games is that we have five new sports. We’ll have the ability to talk about these new sports, what they mean to the athletes and what they mean to the movement.”

The USOPC's Summer Fest will feature a youth obstacle course as part of a five-city tour across the United States. (Photo: USOPC)

More than 40 athletes have qualified for the Olympic team since July 2019, with more than 600 athletes expected to comprise the U.S. team in Tokyo for the Olympics, to be held July 24-Aug. 9. The Paralympics follow Aug. 25-Sept. 6.

With 156 days to go until the Games begin, Olympic officials have touted the host city’s preparations and the public’s excitement for the Games. Forty-three venues will be used for the Olympics, including eight new permanent venues. The new Olympic Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field and soccer, opened to the public last month.

“The fans are coming out for Tokyo in record numbers,” said Chavez D’Angelo, noting that tickets for Tokyo 2020 are close to being sold out. Officials estimated last year 7.8 million tickets would be available for sale. “We have a very rich host city where the Japanese people have such a sense of patriotism and the love of sport that they have been coming out in leaps and bounds in terms of wanting to get a hold of a ticket.”

For Summer Fest, the USOPC says a dozen Team USA athletes will be on hand at each city stop, while Olympic softball champion Jennie Finch, Paralympic wheelchair basketball champion Trevon Jenifer and Olympic gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin will appear at all five stops. New for this year, Summer Fest will include a sport climbing wall, fitness classes, a Team USA Combine, a youth obstacle course and the Night Market – a Japanese-style marketplace.

“At times it’s tough as we are competing, we’re training seven hours a day, six days a week so we really don’t have that opportunity to connect with the fans,” said Liukin, a five-time Olympic medalist who won the women’s all-around gold at the 2008 Beijing Games. “So that’s why I actually love doing it, not just spreading that spirit and excitement of the Olympic and Paralympic movement but also getting to meet people that whether they were fans when I was competing, fans of the sport or the movement in general.”

The five Summer Fest stops:

April 15: 100 Days Out, New York, NY

May 9: Discovery Green Park, Houston, Texas

June 26-28: U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, St. Louis, Mo.

July 3-4: Music City Let Freedom Sing, July 4th, Nashville, Tennessee

July 25: Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles, California

Athletes who will appear at Summer Fest and more information will be listed at www.TeamUSA.org/summerfest

Source: Read Full Article