COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series will kick-off the new year January 9-12 in Knoxville, Tenn., USA Swimming announced today. The four-day meet will take place at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee, marking the first time Knoxville has played host to a TYR Pro Swim Series event.

“We are incredibly excited to bring the TYR Pro Swim Series to Knoxville for the first time ever,” USA Swimming President & CEO Tim Hinchey said. “The bid group’s excitement was palpable, and we know both the local organizing committee and the city will provide first-class service for our athletes and fans.”

The 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series marked the first time USA Swimming selected its events via a request for proposal and bid process. The highly-competitive process yielded many submissions from communities across the county. Together with USA Swimming, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) will play a vital role in the planning, community connections, local sponsorships, ticket sales and marketing of the event.

“We are thrilled to be hosting the kickoff event for the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series,” said Chad Culver, Senior Director of the Visit Knoxville Sports Commission.  “This is a huge win for Knoxville and our entire swimming community. The Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center is a world class facility that will be a great host for the event.”

The TYR Pro Swim Series is a 3.5-day long course event that consists of six stops across the country from January through November. The meet, which traditionally runs from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday, is televised on NBC Sports Network, the Olympic Channel, as well as live streamed at usaswimming.org. The five remaining stops will be announced in the coming weeks.

Historically, each stop attracts between 400-600 of the world’s top swimmers including, USA Swimming National Team members, Junior National Team members and top 50 world ranked swimmers. Most recently in 2018, Olympian Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Md./Stanford Swimming/NCAP) broke a world record (15:20.48) in the 1500m freestyle at a TYR Pro Swim Series meet.

Knoxville has hosted a number of high-profile sporting events including the USA Cycling Pro Road & Time Trials National Championships, USA Diving AT&T National Championships, SEC Swimming and Diving Championships, REV3 Triathlon and University of Tennessee athletic events. The third-largest city in the state of Tennessee is also home to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tickets for the individual TYR Pro Swim Series stops will go on sale in late 2018.