The “Titan Games: Road to Athens” is a two-day event at San Jose State University’s Events Center that will serve as the testing ground for a new U.S. Olympic Committee movement to get the spirit of the Olympic Games “out to the people”
For the first time 186 Olympic athletes from up to 20 counties will compete Feb. 14 and 15 in boxing, wrestling, weight-lifting, fencing, judo, karate and taekwondo.
San Jose Councilman David Cortese said, “this will be a world-class event featuring the best athletes in their fields”.
The event could generate between 2,000 and 3,000 hotel room-nights in San Jose as well as untold international exposure.
The San Jose Games are scheduled to be the first of several events in several cities that bring together similar sports under one roof during non-Olympic years, according to one U.S. Olympic Committee official. And if successful, it could become an annual event.
Many of the events will be held at the same time under the same roof.
While the Titan Games is not an official Olympic qualifier, advertising will use the Olympic connection to its fullest extent. All advertising will have “Titan Games: Road to Athens” emblazoned on it, and the U.S. Olympic Committee will lend its name and logos to the event.
Under a plan still to be developed by U.S. Olympics Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Ward, other cities would host other groups of events at other times of the year under the banner of Titan Games.
U.S. Olympic spokesman Mike Wilson called it a work in progress. “We expect to have a formal kick-off for this in a couple of weeks”.
The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee will be a sponsor of the Titan Games, says Anne Cribbs, the group’s executive director. San Francisco is on the short list for the USOC candidacy of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
“I think it will be a wonderful way to showcase the Bay Area. This is something this area could get its hands around”, said Cribbs.
