INDIANAPOLIS — It's Hispanic Heritage Month, and 13News is celebrating how Hispanic Hoosiers are making an impact in our community.
That includes helping our city shine bright on the world stage.
Indianapolis will host the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in June 2024. For the first time, the event will be staged on an NFL field.
Also, 2024 will mark 100 years since Indianapolis hosted the Olympic swimming trials for the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.
One local group, the Latinas Welding Guild, is working on a big project ahead of the trials.
"The youngest obviously will be sixth grade. We've had up to 70-year-olds who are wanting to learn how to do this," said Consuelo Lockhart, the founder and executive director of the group. "Everything in this space is such a huge upgrade and gives us the opportunity to host larger events."
Lockhart said the guild may have gotten the biggest opportunity of a lifetime with the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, tasked with engaging the Latino community.
"And so we kind of landed on 50-foot for this Eiffel Tower structure, and so it's still in the planning stages," said Lockhart. "We're excited because our team gets to be part of the build and then we wanted to invite people from the community to come in and see the construction of this big piece."
A piece that could be tucked away near the canal downtown.
"The hopes with this Eiffel Tower is to kind of be this landmark monumental thing, so when visitors come to Indy they get a great backdrop for photos, but also it's accessible to walkers, bikers," she said. "I would've never imagined myself building a 50-foot Eiffel tower."
Bringing a little bit of Paris to Indy, and having the Latinas Welding Guild become a part of history.