A sunny Saturday afternoon in downtown Colorado Springs welcomed community members to the Olympic & Paralympic Museum to celebrate and watch the Olympic Trials ahead of the 2024 Summer Games to be held in Paris.

The event featured unique activities including artifact and athlete demonstrations and athlete meet-and-greets. Sunday is Olympic & Paralympic Day, marking 130 years since several international aristocrats established the games as a way to bring the world together.

On June 23, 1894, a group of American and Parisian aristocrats gathered in Paris for what is now known to be the first meeting of the International Olympic Committee.

“This is us celebrating the rich history of the Olympic Games,” Jon Doyle, a museum employee, told The Gazette.

“The whole reason they got together was they had thought that their patriots were getting a little slovenly, so they wanted to promote sports. Two years after they met, we had our first Olympic Games in Athens,” Doyle said.

Out-of-town visitors Ileyton Karimi from Broomfield and Itziar Aransay, who is visiting Colorado from Barcelona, Spain, said the celebration Saturday was a pleasant surprise as they decided to visit the museum at the last minute as part of their trip to the Pikes Peak region.

Aransay said she’s very excited for the games to be held in Paris, a neighbor to her home country.

“In a way, my parents worked for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, so I have a personal connection to that,” Aransay said.

Karimi said he looks forward to watching the games every year they come around, especially the track and field events.

“Growing up doing sports, I think it’s just really cool to see what people are capable of,” Karimi said.

“I tune in to the Olympics to see how people can push themselves. It’s moving, and it’s really inspiring to see.”

At the museum, Tokyo modern pentathlon Olympian and Colorado native Sammy Schultz could be seen demonstrating and teaching community members laser shooting, one of the five events that is now part of the event alongside freestyle swimming, fencing, equestrian show jumping and cross-country running.

She spoke about her excitement about celebrating the Paris Games with the “Olympic City USA” community in Colorado Springs.

“It feels really special. Being an Olympian myself, it brings back a lot of those feelings around that hard work and effort that I put in and the support system that I had from my family and friends,” Schultz said.

Shultz said while she’ll miss being at the games in Paris this year, she’s excited to cheer on Team USA from home.

With the Paris opening ceremony just about a month away, the Olympic & Paralympic Museum has events planned, including the Downtown Summer Fest on July 27 and a series of watch parties kicking off for the opening ceremony on July 28.

“We’re Olympic City USA, home to one of the training centers. We’re hosting in this museum the legacies of these athletes, and we’re commemorating their efforts toward the Olympic and Paralympic movement,” Rosak said.

“I can’t think of a better place to enjoy the games.”