Omaha Punctuates Olympic Swimming Trials With Excitement Again

The pizzazz of the 2012 Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha (Getty Images)

OMAHA, Neb.  – When USA Swimming representatives came here in 2005 to assess the city’s bid to host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials, they noticed that civic organizations had created a logo with a letter and a punctuation mark to encourage the feeling this city was an exciting place.

It was “O!”

When those USA Swimming officials spoke to the country’s elite coaches after awarding the that meet to Omaha, they got a reaction that effectively changed the punctuation.

The way the coaches saw the choice was “O?” as in “Huh? Where? What?”   After all, Omaha had no historic links to swimming, and few athletes from the area ever had reached the sport’s elite.

More than a decade later, as a third straight Omaha Olympic trials begins Sunday, the question mark is gone, and the exclamation points have multiplied exponentially.

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