The
New Balance
New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), best known as simply New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch ...
Indoor Grand Prix, formerly known as the Boston Indoor Games, is an annual indoor
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
meet which is held in late January or early February at the
Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center
The Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center (RLTAC) is an indoor track and indoor basketball stadium in Roxbury, Massachusetts, partially funded by the state of Massachusetts. It is home to numerous Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Associat ...
. It was first held in
Roxbury, a neighborhood in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, in 1996 and has become one of the foremost events of its type in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, alongside the
Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...
.
[Willis among headliners at track event]
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
(2011-01-03). Retrieved on 2011-02-22.
The competition is part of
USA Track and Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...
's
Visa Championship Series and attracts high-caliber athletes, including
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
and
World
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
medalists. The 2016 edition was part of the inaugural
IAAF World Indoor Tour
The World Athletics Indoor Tour, formerly the IAAF World Indoor Tour, is an annual series of indoor track and field meetings, held since 2016. It was designed to create a Diamond League-style circuit for indoor track and field events, to raise th ...
.
Since its inception, a total of six
world records
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
have been set at the event.
[ Among them are performances by Ethiopian runner ]Tirunesh Dibaba
Tirunesh Dibaba ( om, Xirunesh Dibaabaa, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 June 1985) is an Ethiopian athlete who competed in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold medals, ...
, who set a world indoor record over 5000 metres
The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...
in 2005 and improved that mark in 2007. The Boston Indoor Games has also featured numerous national records
National Records was a record label that was started in New York City by Albert Green in 1945 and lasted until early 1951.
Big Joe Turner was signed at the beginning and remained until 1947. Billy Eckstine was also a big seller for the label as w ...
and United States all-comers records (the best performances recorded on US soil).
The competition has had a number of title sponsors over its history, including adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...
in the early 2000s and Reebok
Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...
from 2005 to 2010. New Balance became the current title sponsor in 2011.[ The rights to the event are owned by Global Athletics & Marketing and Mark Wetmore is the meeting director.
At the 2012 meeting, ]Jenn Suhr
Jennifer Lynn Suhr (née Stuczynski; born February 5, 1982) is an American former pole vaulter. She has been an Olympic and World champion, has been ranked #1 in the World, has been the #1 American pole vaulter since 2006, and has won a total of ...
broke her own American record in the pole vault
Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...
, clearing 4.88 m to become the second-highest vaulter of all time.
In 2021 the event was relocated to the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, New York due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Boston venue was serving as a mass vaccination site.
World records
Over the course of its history, five world records
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
and one world best
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
have been set at the Boston Indoor Games.
Meet Records
Men
Women
References
External links
Official website
Boston Indoor Games Records
{{IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings
1996 establishments in Massachusetts
Annual indoor track and field meetings
Annual sporting events in the United States
IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings
World Athletics Indoor Tour
Recurring sporting events established in 1996
Sports competitions in Boston
Track and field competitions in the United States
Track and field in Massachusetts