With a major competition coming up in December and hopes for Olympic trials in 2024, the Aquatic Center at Mylan Park is continuing to make a big splash – in the big-time world of competitive diving.
Organizers are now readying for the 2022 USA Diving Winter Championships this Dec. 14-18 at center, which is quickly becoming a marquee stop at the multi-use complex off Chaplin Road.
As many as 100 divers from across the U.S. are expected to compete in the event, which is their opening act for the Olympic Summer Games.
Mylan Park Board President Ron Justice said the latest overture with the five iconic rings is a literal marketing springboard.
“This is really significant for us,” he said.
When Justice was Morgantown mayor 21 years ago and the park complex was still in its pencil-sketch stages, he wasn’t thinking so much about national significance.
It was more a matter of creating a nice place townspeople could enjoy, he said.
The park last spring unveiled a sports addition to the Hazel and J.W. Ruby Community Center that comes in at nearly $7 million.
Over the past two decades, the complex has been home to a diverse lineup of offerings, from craft fairs and craft beer festivals – to lumberjack events and American Legion baseball.
And then came the aquatic center.
The center has already hosted major diving events in its recent past. Organizers are hoping Olympic officials take note of the doings in December.
Gov. Jim Justice, who is no relation to the board president and former mayor, is already lobbying for the Olympic diving trials two years from now.
“The world has taken notice of West Virginia and what we have to offer,” the governor said.
Ron Justice, meanwhile, said he’s enjoying the happy, ripple effect wrought by the aquatic center.
“This is really what we were envisioning and hoping for,” he said. “We wanted an Olympic-caliber facility.”
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