A New Breed of Long-Track Speed-Skating Venue

Until the Calgary Games in 1988, Olympic long-track speed skating took place in outdoor venues, which posed tremendous challenges in keeping ice conditions equitable and consistent between events. Since 1988, all Olympic long-track speed-skating facilities, with the exception of that used in Albertville in 1992, have been indoor facilities.

Indoor long-track facilities are huge, however, and the buildings that have been built solely to host Olympic speed-skating events have faced significant revenue and operations challenges post-Games. To be cost-effective, an indoor Olympic long-track speed-skating venue must be convertible to other uses.

The Richmond Olympic Oval achieves this and more. Designed as an urban catalyst for local development, the Oval is convertible to numerous other sport and non-sport uses and will function as a civic amenity and community gathering place, combining community, social, and recreation spaces with compatible ancillary uses such as sports medicine, sports management, and high-performance training facilities. Its memorable form, likely to become an architectural icon for the region, is also highly responsive to the diverse character of the emerging community, the streetscape, and adjacent parkland.

The Richmond Olympic Oval will lead three distinct functional lives.

• Between completion of construction in fall 2008 and Prior to the exclusive Olympic use period in 2010, the building will function as a community gathering space, high-performance speed-skating training facility, and public fitness centre.

• For the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, approximately 8,000 seats, television cameras, and upgraded lighting will be added, and interior spaces will be reassigned to cater to the needs of the athletes, the media, the spectators, and the Olympic family.

• After the Games, the facility will transform again to house a civic community wellness centre, a centre for training and developmental high-performance sport, a wellness services provider, and community meeting and public gathering spaces. The Oval’s main activity space will allow ice sport to occur simultaneously with other sports or assembly uses and will also remain convertible to the former 400-metre long-track use.

Legacy Uses of the Richmond Olympic Oval

• The Oval’s main activity floor will have three activity zones: an ice zone, a court zone, and a track zone. The ice zone will include two Olympic-size ice rinks capable of hosting all ice sports. This area will also be reconfigurable to one large ice sheet or to a single stadium-style rink with additional seating capacity.

• The court zone will accommodate up to eight full-sized basketball courts or similar gymnasium-type uses such as volleyball, racquet sports, and wheelchair sports.

• The track zone will include a competition standard 200-metre running track and a 60-metre sprint track, with infield space available for additional indoor athletics uses.

• Interchangeable playing surfaces will allow any or all of the zones to be converted to a variety of sports uses, including reinstallation of the 400-metre speed-skating track for special events or training periods.

• The Oval will also provide several fitness areas, including a specialized high-performance fitness centre for elite athletes and a 2,000 sm fitness centre open to the public, with specialized areas and equipment devoted to youth, seniors, and rehabilitation.

• The Oval will provide complete support for training and competing athletes, including a full array of sports medicine services; sports sciences, including athlete testing; an array of multipurpose spaces in addition to the three primary sport zones; and office space for coaches, sports administration, and other services.

• The Oval will serve as a national training centre or academy for a number of core summer and winter sports