Chicago 2016, the City of Chicago and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) spearheaded efforts encouraging cities around the United States to celebrate Olympic Day on June 23.

Olympic Day is the worldwide commemoration of the first International Olympic Committee meeting and the founding of the modern Olympic Games. In all, 158 cities from 43 states held Olympic Day celebrations, which included fun runs, lectures, sport competitions and demonstrations and were attended by more than 200 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

An estimated 20,000 people attended the Olympic Day celebration and sports extravaganza. More than 30 Olympic and Paralympic athletes attended Chicago’s celebration, including Mike Day, Josh George, Paul Hamm, April Holmes, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carli Lloyd, Connie Moore, Paul Moran, Matt Scott and Jason Wening.

In Chicago, 30,000 kids participated in fun runs across the city, including 1,000 youth in Washington Park, the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium. Later in the day, 1,200 adults took part in a fun run that finished at North Avenue Beach—just north of the city center and the proposed site of the triathlon and Paralympic road cycling course—where 3,000 athletes were competing in 21 sports.

Watch the ABC coverage

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