COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs leaders tell me they're promoting Olympic City USA as the next best place to be during the Olympic games.
I wanted to see how much spirit people have who live here, so I went to Memorial Park.
"[The name] feels like a joke," said a resident of five years, Ellen Magar. "I've heard about nothing about the Olympics from Colorado Springs."
Magar said being here doesn't make the games any more special.
"I lived in Oklahoma, my family always watched the Olympics and then when we moved here, it's like 'Olympic City USA, this is awesome, all the training facilities,' but I don't feel like it's made a difference," said Magar.
Others, like Amanda Duncan who lived here for eight years, said she feels closer to the athletes in Paris watching the games here.
"It honestly makes me excited about the Olympics, probably a little bit more," said Duncan. "I grew up in like Littleton area and I can tell you, I think about the Olympics more being down here because there's more events going on."
The city's marketing and engagement manager, Joe Hollmann, said they're honing in on Colorado Springs' unique connection to 2024 Team USA athletes.
Hollmann said 40% of them lived or trained here at one point.
"[Residents] really connecting to these moments of that they see on TV," said Hollman. "Hey that's the person that's running at the Sante Fe trail or they've been training at the training center and I saw them when I toured it, those types of things are really special, really authentic to the brand."
The US Olympic and Paralympic Museum's spokesperson, Tommy Schield, said the number of visitors is already up 85% so far during the Olympics compared to this time last year.
"We can't do something big every single day like we did for the downtown Summerfest," said Schield. "But we are doing things from daily artifact demonstrations to athlete meet and greets."
Click here for a list of events and programs hosted by the museum. VisitCOS also has opportunities to get involved, click here for that schedule. The Downtown Partnership has a few more options, check out what's happening online.
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