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U.S. Olympic Festival

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The U.S. Olympic Festival was a multi-sport event held in the United States by the United States Olympic Committee in the years between the Olympic Games. It was started in 1978 as an American counterpart to the communist Spartakiad – a similar event held on a quadrennial basis by the former Soviet Union and its former satellite in East Germany. As the competitive position of U.S. athletes in the Olympics slipped relative to that of the Soviets and East Germans, it was felt the U.S. needed some kind of multi-sports event to simulate the Olympic experience.[1] It was originally called the National Sports Festival until the name was changed in 1986. It was the nation's largest junior sporting event until it ended in 1995.[2]

History

The idea of a National Sports Festival was originally conceived by Robert Kane, who first publicly discussed the idea while attending the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, as executive vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Kane said he had been working on the concept for over a decade before that.[3][4][5] The event was intended to allow American athletes to develop in a setting similar to that of international competitions like the Olympics, particularly female athletes who had fewer opportunities to do so. Kane believed this was necessary for Americans to compete with countries with state support for Olympic athletes and more regular youth sporting events, particularly the Soviet Union and East Germany, which were starting to surpass the United States in many Olympic events at the time.[3][6][7]

After Kane was elected president of the USOC in April 1977,[8] the committee began to discuss the notion of holding such a festival every summer, except during Olympic years.[4] The first edition of the National Sports Festival was announced in November 1977, only seven months before it would take place. It would be held in July 1978 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the USOC had recently built its first national Olympic Training Center and was relocating its headquarters there from New York City.[9] The second annual edition of the festival, in 1979, was the first to receive live television coverage. NBC purchased the broadcast rights for $500,000, covering much of the event's operating costs.[10]

When the United States announced it would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics held in the Moscow, the USOC considered holding an extra edition of the National Sports Festival to allow American athletes to still compete that summer.[11] However, due to fears that trying to create an alternative Olympics would permanently damage the relations with the International Olympic Committee, and concerns that staging an event of Olympic scale with only a few months to prepare would be impractical, the idea was soon dropped.[12][13][14] Instead, two smaller-scale events were held that summer, the Liberty Bell Classic track-and-field meet in Philadelphia and the U.S. Gymnastics Federation International Invitational in Hartford, Connecticut.

During the 1985 Festival, the USOC announced that future editions of the event would be renamed to the "U.S. Olympic Festival". The name change was intended to make the association between the Festival and the Olympic Games more obvious, and to encourage more interest in the event.[15][16]

Changes in national and international sporting and geopolitics made the Olympic Festival less significant over time. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 eliminated part of the event's original purpose. An overall growth in youth sporting competitions in the United States, such as those represented by the National Congress of State Games, created competition for the Olympic Festival. The quality of competition at the Festival became inconsistent, with some sports featuring the top American athletes and others having only young upstarts in need of development.[17] The IOC's decision in 1986 to stagger the Winter Olympics in even-numbered years between the Summer Olympics meant that the U.S. Olympic Festival could only be held in odd-numbered years after 1994, reducing it from three events in each four-year period to two.

During the 1995 Festival, the USOC voted to cancel its plans for the 1997 event, which had not been awarded to a host city yet, stating that there was not enough time to prepare. USOC members agreed that the Olympic Festival needed a change in focus, but could not agree on what changes should be made.[18][19]

Editions

Year Location Sources
1 1978 Colorado Springs, Colorado [20]
2 1979 Colorado Springs, Colorado
1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
(boycotted by the United States)
3 1981 Syracuse, New York [21][22][23][24][25]
4 1982 Indianapolis, Indiana [26]
5 1983 Colorado Springs, Colorado [27][28][29]
1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, United States
6 1985 Baton Rouge, Louisiana [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
7 1986 Houston, Texas [38][39][40]
8 1987 Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina [41][42]
1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea
9 1989 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
10 1990 Minneapolis, Minnesota
11 1991 Los Angeles, California [43]
1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
12 1993 San Antonio, Texas
13 1994 St. Louis, Missouri
14 1995 Boulder, Colorado

References

  1. ^ Hersh, Philip (July 27, 1995). "Olympic Festival's Success May Cause Its Demise". Chicago Tribune.
  2. ^ Reid, Ron. "Olympic Festival Was A Big Hit In Oklahoma". philly.com.
  3. ^ a b Rabun, Mike. "The World Is Catching Up; United States Needs Athletic Counterattack—Soon", UPI, via Lexington Herald-Leader, August 1, 1976, page B-3.
  4. ^ a b "Amateur Sports Festival Eyed", Associated Press, via Sacramento Bee, June 29, 1977, page D8.
  5. ^ Spears, Betty. "The Olympic Movement and Physical Education", Citius, Altius, Fortius, April 8-10, 1980, American Academy of Physical Education, Detroit.
  6. ^ Washburn, J. N. (July 21, 1974). "Soviet Amateur Athlete: A Real Pro". The New York Times.
  7. ^ "Sports in Soviet Union Only for Elite : There Are Top Athletes, and then There Are Those Who Sunbathe and Watch Drawbridges Go up". Los Angeles Times. July 22, 1986.
  8. ^ Van Sickle, Kenny. "Robert Kane elected USOC president", Ithaca Journal, April 29, 1977, page 15.
  9. ^ Navarro, Joe. "Amateur Athletes Will Gather for July Sports Festival", Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, November 29, 1977, front page.
  10. ^ "U.S. Opens Its Sports Festival on Friday", The New York Times, July 22, 1979, Web. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  11. ^ "Panel Studies Olympic Alternative; National Sports Festival Possible", Associated Press, via Springfield News-Sun, January 28, 1980, front page.
  12. ^ Hulme, Derick L. The Political Olympics: Moscow, Afghanistan, and the 1980 U.S. Boycott, Praeger, 1990, pages 29–30.
  13. ^ Jenkins, Chris. "Springs' chances dim for hosting festival", Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, March 29, 1980, Sports section, front page.
  14. ^ "Miller: It's Moscow or nothing", Associated Press, via Elmira Star-Gazette, April 2, 1980, page 29.
  15. ^ Rosner, Dave. "Festival Gets New Approach", Newsday, July 26, 1985, page 158.
  16. ^ "Mitchell scores double gold", Associated Press, via Southern Illinoisan, July 28, 1985, page 20.
  17. ^ "Amateur Events Glut Public; Olympic-Style Games More Pseudo Than Super", South Florida Sun-Sentinel, August 1, 1993, Web. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  18. ^ Deardorff, Julie. "Searching for direction, USOC cancels 1997 Olympic Festival", Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1995, Section 3, page 6.
  19. ^ "USOC eliminates Olympic festivals", Associated Press, via Greenfield Daily Reporter, October 9, 1995, page 10.
  20. ^ Jares, Joe. "It Was A Towering Success", Sports Illustrated, August 7, 1978, Web.
  21. ^ "National Sports Festival Results - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 29, 1981. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  22. ^ "National Sports Festival At Syracuse, N.Y., July 28 - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 28, 1981. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  23. ^ "National Sports Festival at Syracuse, N.Y., July 26 - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 26, 1981. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  24. ^ "National Sports Festival Figure Skating - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 24, 1981. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  25. ^ "The United States Olympic Committee's 1982 National Sports Festival,... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. February 1, 1981. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  26. ^ "Diving Results, National Sports Festival Diving preliminaries At Indianapolis, July 21 - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 21, 1982. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  27. ^ "VolleyballPARA:WomenPARA:West def. East, 11-15, 15-6, 15-10, 17-15PARA:WomenPARA:Gold Medal GamePARA:West (96) - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 1, 1983. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  28. ^ "Results of Sunday's events at the fifth National Sports... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. June 27, 1983. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  29. ^ "Results from Saturday's events at the fifth National Sports... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. June 25, 1983. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  30. ^ "National Sports Festival Results;NEWLN:At Baton Rouge, La., Aug. 4, 1985 - UPI Archives". Upi.com. August 4, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  31. ^ "Men's Single Short Program - UPI Archives". Upi.com. August 2, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  32. ^ "National Sports Festival Results Field Hockey Gold Medal Game - UPI Archives". Upi.com. August 3, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  33. ^ "Results of Monday's competition at the sixth National Sports... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 29, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  34. ^ "Results from Sunday's competition in the National Sports Festival:... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 28, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  35. ^ "Results from Saturday's competition at the sixth National Sports... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 27, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  36. ^ "National Sports Festival Results At Baton Rouge, La., July 25 - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 25, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  37. ^ "Athletes competing in the 1985 National Sports Festival next... - UPI Archives". Upi.com. June 25, 1985. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  38. ^ "U.S. Olympic Festival Results - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 26, 1986. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  39. ^ "Desert Sun 2 August 1986 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". Cdnc.ucr.edu. August 2, 1986. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  40. ^ "Olympic Festival - facts, figures - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 19, 1986. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  41. ^ "1987 USOF Results" (PDF). www.trianglesportscommission.com.
  42. ^ "Olympic Festival Results - UPI Archives". Upi.com. July 18, 1987. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  43. ^ JEFF HASEN UPI Sports Writer (July 13, 1991). "Boxers De la Hoya, Griffin win at U.S. Olympic Festival - UPI Archives". Upi.com. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
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