Arch Madness

 (Do any of you remember when the U.S. Olympic Festival came to St. Louis back in 1994?  That was just one year after our 100-year flood annihilated the Chesterfield Valley and everywhere else in the Greater St. Louis and St. Charles County region.  Well, here is the preview I wrote for the sporting event and the St. Louis area, published in The Cincinnati Enquirer Travel Section.)

     The march to the Arch began when the Torch Relay left Kansas City last Wednesday.  Some five weeks later, it will be more like a stampede to St. Louis as U.S. Olympic Festival-’94 rocks “The Gateway City,” July 1-10.

     An estimated 500,000 spectators will watch in wonderment as more than 3,000 of our nation’s premier amateur athletes compete in 37 sporting events.  The purpose of the festival is to prime the athletes for international competition, like the Olympics.

     In the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, held in Barcelona, Spain, 106 of the 187 U.S. medalists had previously competed in at least one festival.

     Many former festival participants became Olympic stars and household names, including basketball’s Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing; diver Greg Louganis; speed skater Bonnie Blair; boxers Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield; gymnast Mary Lou Retton; figure skaters Scott Hamilton and Nancy Kerrigan; and track & field stars Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses.

Cincinnatian Pace Competed

     Another top Olympian, Cincinnati’s own Darrell Pace, competed in St. Louis in 1986 (I did a feature on him in Forest Park) in what was then known as The National Sports Festival. 

  A couple years later, the competition’s name was changed to the Olympic Festival.  That was fitting for Pace, who won the Olympic gold in archery in 1976 and 1984, sandwiched around the 1980 U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow games.   

     Joyner-Kersee, a native of East St. Louis, IL, is considered by many as the world’s greatest female athlete.  She has competed in three Summer Olympics, winning three gold medals among five medals in all.  In addition to serving as one of the chairpersons, Joyner-Kersee is actually expected to compete in Festival-’94. 

     A host of other Olympians and hundreds of future ones will participate in some 250 sessions of competition.  A few of the events are free.  The majority of the action, held at 25 sites throughout Metropolitan St. Louis and neighboring communities of eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois, costs $4-$15 per session.

     Perhaps the most memorable of all the Festival-’94 events is open to the public and free of charge.  It’s the Opening Ceremony, held July 1 under The Gateway Arch.  Emceed by nationally-renown broadcaster Bob Costas, the gala affair will feature the parade of athletes and the official lighting of the 60-goot-high festival cauldron holding the Olympic flame.  Big-name entertainment and a spectacular fireworks display also highlight the event.

     The ceremonies pack a double-barreled punch.  They mark the opening of Festival-’94 and also kickoff the 1994 V.P. Fair, held July 2-4 on the Arch grounds.

Gateway to the Best

     What began in 1981 as a mere community-wide celebration devised to benefit area charities grew by leaps and bounds into today’s V.P. Fair.  The annual fair, now billed by many as “America’s Biggest and Best Birthday Party,” is a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed.

     The Veiled Prophet Parade starts off the festivities, which include sensational air shows, six free “big-name” concerts, a terrific Children’s Village of rides, games and entertainment; an International Village featuring the tastes of several popular St. Louis restaurants among 100 food booths, amusement rides and spectacular nightly fireworks.

 Whew!  No wonder the V.P. Fair draws more than a million people on each of the event’s three days.  There’s never a dull moment!

     The V.P. Fair is a one-of-a-kind event attracting massive crowds, but the St. Charles Riverfest is another colossal Fourth of July weekend celebration.  Located about 25 miles west of the Arch along the Missouri River, the Riverfest, near Missouri’s first Capitol and the Frenchtown Antique District, also features top entertainment, food booths and great fireworks.

     But few sights can match the towering majesty of St. Louis’ most popular attraction, The Gateway Arch.  The 630-foot-high, stainless steel catenary curve, completed in 1965, is the symbol of the city’s nickname, “The Gateway to the West.”

     St. Louis was the starting point for America’s westward expansion of the early 1800s, after the Louisiana Purchase agreement was signed.  The story of that era is dramatically and colorfully depicted in the Museum of Westward Expansion, beneath the Arch.

     Other top remnants of the past lie in the shadows of the Arch.  Life-like replicas of 19^th century steamboats beckon visitors with narrated cruises.  The Illinois side of the Mississippi features riverboat gambling.  Authentic cobblestone streets on both sides of the river showcase lively night spots which fill old cast iron and brick buildings.

Gateway to Bargains

     St. Louis is one of the least expensive cities in which to live.  That value for the money is also reflected in its tourist bargains.

     Anyone who abides by the adage “You get what you paid for,” has never been to Forest Park!  The 1.293-acre park, far larger than New York’s Central Park, requires a full day plus just to visit its three free offerings.

     The St. Louis Zoo is considered one of the biggest and best in the world.  In addition to housing some 2,800 birds, reptiles and mammals, it features the ferocious felines of “Big Cat Country” and the spectacular “Living World” education and discovery center, complete with hands-on interactive exhibits and animatronics of Charles Darwin.

     The new St. Louis Science Center, opened in late 1991, features four main galleries with fun, educational displays of ecology, the environment, medicine, dinosaurs and the development of flight.  You can also stand on an enclosed bridge over Interstate 64 and clock traffic with one of several real radar guns.

     Meanwhile, one of the nation’s finest collections of ancient and modern art can be found in the St. Louis Art Museum; also with great views overlooking Art Hill! 

     St. Louis’ other spectacular free sights include Grant’s Farm (reservations required), Jefferson Barracks National Military Park, Laumeier Sculpture Park, the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, and the Old Courthouse where the famed Dred Scott slavery trial was held.

     Also free of charge is St. Louis Union Station, a long-time, great railway station celebrating its 100^th birthday!  This National Historic Landmark now houses more than 100 specialty stores and restaurants.  But it still maintains its vintage flair.

Plenty of Sights

     The St. Louis area also boasts Cahokia Mounds World Heritage Site, the oldest prehistoric site north of Mexico; Six Flags over Mid-America; the Missouri Botanical Gardens, featuring the world’s first geodesic dome and the largest traditional Japanese garden in North America; the Magic House Children’s Museum; National Museum of Transportation; St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame; Municipal Opera (MUNY)--the nation's largest outdoor theater; plus caves and wineries galore!

     That’s just a tip of the iceberg for St. Louis, where the first kindergarten in the United States was built in 1873, where peanut butter was invented in 1890, and McDonnell-Douglas built the Mercury space capsule that carried the first Americans into orbit.

     In between, the ice cream cone, hot dog, hamburger and iced tea were popularized at the 1904 World’s Fair, held in Forest Park.  One of the events showcased there was the first modern Summer Olympic Games held in the United States.

     Now, 90 years later, future Olympians come to St. Louis to compete near where the Cardinals will be packing in huge crowds at Busch Stadium for the first six days this July, and where millions of people will flock to the V.P. Fair, St. Charles Riverfest and countless other attractions.

     If that’s not Arch Madness, what is???