U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : St. Louis Has Taken to This Event in a Big Way

It’s not the heat, it’s the humility.

St. Louis has endured some sports scars in recent years.

It’s a city where the football team left, basketball teams won’t come, hockey’s ice has melted and the baseball team is so-so.

And it didn’t get the World Cup.

But this is a resilient city that dried itself from last year’s floods.

So, against the backdrop of an arch that is less familiar to some of today’s youth than the Golden Arches, the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival gets under way today with the opening ceremony and the Olympic Festival torch.

As it is an event dedicated to developing United States athletes, most of the participants are not well known.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is expected to run in in the 100-meter hurdles Thursday night and Michelle Kwan will give a figure skating exhibition Saturday, but the attraction here is rising stars.

It’s like a mini-Olympics. It’s 37 sports in 10 days. An Olympics for Americans, if you will.

Or call it an Olympic warm-up, which should be easy given temperatures in the high 90s and similar humidity.

In addition to Olympic events, there will competition in table tennis, bowling, roller skating and roller hockey.

Nearly 33,000 tickets were sold for the Olympic Festival in the first two days. Officials say ticket sales have surpassed $2.1 million and they are anticipating sellouts for all the track days and various other events.