CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s going to be a busy June for leaders in Charleston, as two major championship sporting events will be in the Capital City.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin announced that the USA Gymnastics for All GymFest will be held at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center from June 25 through June 28. It was also announced at the press conference that the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championship races will be just days before from June 17 through June 21.
“We are building on relationships that we have with this national organization and now there is this national reputation that we have to be a destination for these national sports. This is what a mayor dreams of,” Goodwin told MetroNews.
The USA Gymnastics event is slated to bring over 500 athletes into the Capital City to compete in the arena that have recently hosted USA Table Tennis and USA Volleyball events.
Charleston CVB President and CEO Tim Brady says getting to host USA Gymnastics was no overnight feat.
“These Olympic sports governing bodies, the majority of them are headquartered in Colorado Springs, but they all know each other and they all talk,” Brady said. “As governing bodies have good experiences here in the city — and we have provided good experiences to all of them — they spread the word because they want to go someplace where they know they’ll be welcomed, but they also know that there are professionals and supportive people in the community that will help make their event successful.”
Brady also says the Coliseum and Convention Center is primed to be a good host thanks to the facility’s updates and room for loading/unloading.
“We have more loading dock spaces than most facilities this size, so it’s easy for organizations like table tennis or gymnastics that bring a lot of tables and mats and things like that in,” Brady said. “It may seem small, but it’s a big deal for them to be able to back their trucks up and unload all this stuff in a convenient way.”
Charleston will be hosting the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championship races for a third consecutive year, as part of an agreement that keeps the event in the Capital City through 2028. The event generated an economic impact of $6.9 million this past May.
It was announced Tuesday that the races will coincide with Juneteenth and West Virginia Day in 2026.
“The opportunity to work with them and to help amplify their message is exciting for us and I think there will be additional opportunities presented by the inclusion of West Virginia Day in those dates,” Brady said.
“The ability to work not only with cycling, but then to talk about West Virginia Day with people who aren’t from here and bring them more understanding of West Virginia and West Virginia culture, that’s an exciting opportunity,” he continued.
Goodwin agrees that athletes from around the world will see what the city and the state are truly about.
“How exciting for us to be able to not only host these wonderful athletes from all across the country and all across the world to the city of Charleston and have them participate and be involved in Werst Virginia Day and Juneteenth. It tells them a little bit more of the story of who we are and what we’re about,” she said.
At the announcement Tuesday was a group of young gymnasts from Maverick Gym in Kanawha City. Goodwin says they, like young cyclists in the area, will be able to watch the nation’s best right in their hometown.
“When you watched Kristen Faulkner — who won in Paris — ride the streets in the city of Charleston and then go on to ride through the Eiffel Tower in Paris, that’s inspiring,” Goodwin said. “You watch these young girls with us today. They are going to watch that same type of national-level athletes in their backyard.”