FACILITY FOCUS
Vancouver 2010
WINTER OLYMPICS
The 2010 Winter Olympics are split between
Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler, offering
separate athletes’ villages and medals ceremonies.
Brian Robinson reviews the competition facilities
In the City > > >
Richmond Olympic Oval – 12 events
L
ocated 10 miles south west of Track talk
Downtown Vancouver, the long World records are shared between the
track speed skating venue is a Calgary Oval (3,500ft) and Utah Olympic
major capital and revenue expense for Oval (4,000ft). The hard, fast ice achieved
every Winter Olympic Games. Long track at high altitude will not be replicated
first moved indoors at Calgary in 1988. with the barometric pressure and humid-
Since then, four more Olympic Ovals ity of sea level Richmond. However, the
have been constructed and all have refrigeration system creates different
struggled financially. Essentially it looks ice conditions around the track. The ice
like a 400m indoor athletics track cov- on the bends can be softer so that ath-
ered in hard fast ice. letes can hold an edge better, while the
The new 33,750sq m Oval includes straights are harder to build speed.
7,600 seats and forms the centrepiece of
a re-energised Fraser Riverfront. Can- Legacy uses
non Design’s Bob Johnston, who led the Richmond is hoping to avoid over-
design team, had previously worked on dependency on speed skating by
Calgary and Salt Lake City. Structural developing a 6.5acre community sports
engineering of the roof by Fast and Epp hall. The eastern third will continue as
includes hollow wood steel ‘V’-shaped ice with two full-sized rinks. The middle
glulam arches which span the 310ft will be a hardwood floor area the size
width. These conceal mechanical and elec- of eight basketball courts for basketball,
trical ducting and sprinklers. The spacing indoor soccer, volleyball, badminton and
between the arches has prefabricated handball. The final third will be a 110m
panels, many of them from wood infested athletics sprint straight with the capa-
with mountain pine-beetle, which retains bility to include a 200m athletics track.
its strength if harvested quickly. The floor areas will be interchangeable
and capable of conversion back to long
track skating. A fitness centre will cover
2,100sq m. There will be a publicly acces-
sible indoor rowing and paddling tank
and 1,500sq m given over to sports sci-
ence and rehabilitation.
The City of Richmond will need a
minimum endowment legacy of C$60m
(£35m) through the Games Operating
Trust to offset the Oval’s operating
costs. Tourism Richmond is using the
venue as a gateway to its broader
offerings at Golden Village Asian area
and Steveston historic fishing village.
24 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital Issue 1 2010 © cybertrek 2010
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