As if eight days of Olympic Trials racing were not enough excitement, the American Swimming Coaches Association and the Indiana Sports Corporation are enhancing the event with a “Fan Fest” in the IUPUI Gymnasium area prior to each day’s prelims and each day’s finals.

Coaches and fans are invited to spend time visiting with 24 of the swimming world’s most active manufacturers and retailers at the Vendor Village, also in the IUPUI gym. They include:

• SwimInfo.com
• Dolfin International Corporation
• Quokka Sports
• M-F Athletic Company
• Goodyear
• YouthSports.com
• USA Swimming
• Tyr Sport
• Adolf Kiefer & Associates
• Rodale’s Fitness Swimmer
• UPS
• Cadillac
• Systems Go! International
• Bag Tags, Inc.
• Aardvark Swim & Sport
• Jantzen/Nike
• Adidas
• Zura Sports
• Daktronics
• and ASCA

The Fan Fest will be a chance to meet and greet present day Olympians, past Olympians and past Olympic Coaches in the 90 minutes before the start of each session. Some 50 swimming personalities will take the mike for 10-20 minutes each to talk about their Olympic experiences, analyze the coming races of that day and evening, and “tell stories” about their Olympic friends and neighbors. In addition, the Fan Fest area will feature videos of great Olympic moments in swimming as well as video of other world records and “gold medal moments.”

Already committed to appear at Fan Fest 2000 are current athletes:

• Josh Davis
• Lindsey Benko
• Jarrod Marrs
• Brooke Bennett
• Bobby Brewer
• Anita Nall
• and others are being added daily.

Former Olympic Coaches: Coach Peter Daland, Coach George Haines, and Australian Coaching Legend Forbes Carlile.

Other National Coaches: Chuck Warner (Rutgers), Terry Laughlin (Total Immersion), Peter Banks (Coach of Brooke Bennett), Tim Murphy (Harvard), Ira Klein (Santa Barbara Swim Club), Dennis Pursley (National Team Director), and Coach Bill Wadley (The Ohio State University).

Other invited Coaches are: Head Olympic Coach Mark Schubert (USC) and Richard Quick (Stanford), and former Olympic Coach Ed Reese (Texas), and John Trembley (Tennessee).

Invited former Olympians are: Theresa Andrews, Donna de Varona, Bobby Hackett, Gary Hall Sr., John Kinsella, Betsy Mitchell, James Montgomery, Mary Plant (Meagher), Jill Sterkel, Mike Troy and David Wharton.

(All are unconfirmed at this time.)

Special presentations by Editor Phillip Whitten of Swimming World and Vern Gambetta (Dryland Conditioning coach).

Fan Fest is intended to make a great event even more entertaining and educational and will be a great opportunity for old friends to meet, mix, mingle and for swimming fans to listen to their heroes and former greats, and say hello and thanks for the memories.

Look for both Fan Fest and the ASCA Vendor Village in the IUPUI gymnasium across from the pool on the mezzanine level of the IUPUI Natatorium. See you there!

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