USA Gymnastics

GREENSBORO - Officials from USA Swimming toured the Greensboro Coliseum Complex on Tuesday.

Today, it's USA Gymnastics' turn.

Greensboro's quest to bring high-profile Olympic-sport national championships to the coliseum has picked up steam since the city hosted the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and landed that same event for 2015.

Now the city is among five finalists to host the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials. And today, the organizing group led by Hill Carrow will make a pitch to host the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.

USA Gymnastics' top two officials - president Steve Penny and chief operating officer Ron Galimore - will tour the coliseum complex on what Carrow calls "a fact-finding mission for them and for us."

Hartford, Conn., will host the national championships in August. Indianapolis will be the host site in 2015.

It's a big deal. When Hartford hosted in 2010, the five-day event drew 29,298 fans who accounted for more than 5,000 hotel room nights. All-session tickets for Hartford's event this summer cost $125 to $395.

No host site has been selected for 2014 or for the next Olympic year, 2016.

"Ron Galimore came to see our set-up during the figure skating championships (in 2011)," coliseum managing director Matt Brown said. "He traveled all the way in from Seattle, flying here to get a feel for the setup. We told him that would be the same, under-one-roof model for gymnastics."

Now Galimore, a former Olympic gymnast, is back along with the group's top executive.

"It's our job to show Steve Penny what Ron's already seen," Brown said. "So he can find out: What is this place? Is it real? Could we do what we're talking about doing?"

Carrow is confident the coliseum can deliver. He envisions the nationally televised gymnastics competition in the coliseum's main arena, with the Special Events Center hosting rhythmic gymnastics competition, practice areas and a FanFest.

"They're extremely interested in the facilities," Carrow said. "The gymnastics championships are a great event - right there with swimming at the top of the heap for summer Olympic sports. Competition runs over four days, but they also combine their national convention with it."

The convention attracts athletes, suppliers, vendors and club representatives from around the country. Carrow said Greensboro proposes putting those meetings and trade show in the Koury Convention Center, a mile down High Point Road from the coliseum.

The convention also provides a built-in fan base for ticket sales to the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.

One hurdle local organizers need to clear is that USA Gymnastics has held its national championships in the Southeast just twice in 50 years - in 1972 in Georgia and in 1985 in Florida.

"They know that we got figure skating again," Brown said, "and that reassures them we're not a questionable site. Figure skating took a chance on an untested market in 2011, and it not only survived - it thrived. It was successful to the point where it's coming back in '15."

And perhaps those skaters paved the way for swimmers and gymnasts.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024, and follow @JefeMills on Twitter.

nUSA Gymnastics' top two officials will tour the coliseum today on a "fact-finding mission."