Let The Games Begin
The torch is lit, and the games are on.
But, before the Team USA athletes boarded their flights to Tokyo, they spent years training for the pinnacle of their careers.
In order to provide Olympians with the best training venues and facilities for their sport development, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee partners with elite athlete training centers.
Many of these training centers are on the Playeasy marketplace in addition to several Olympic Trial venues and former Olympic host venues.
Learn more about these facilities below.
Olympic Trial Venues
CHI HEALTH CENTER
The Omaha Sports Commission is no stranger to hosting large-scale events. Most recently, they tackled the U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials. The 2020 trials were held at the Chi Health Center and brought 1,425 swimmers to Omaha to compete for a spot on the 56-person roster.
You can look forward to seeing Olympic Trials in Omaha again soon. The 2022 Olympic Curling Trials will be held from November 13-21, 2021 at Baxter Arena in Omaha.
THE NATATORIUM
This year’s U.S. Olympic Diving Trials were held in Indianapolis at The Natatorium. Indiana University Natatorium is a swimming complex on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus in Indianapolis, Indiana. The IU Natatorium is no stranger to hosting Olympic Trials. The first trials this venue hosted were in 1984, and it has hosted swimming and diving trials nearly every year since.
Past Olympic Venues
GEORGIA STATE STADIUM
Georgia State Stadium was originally built for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia as Centennial Olympic Stadium. Following the 1996 Summer Paralympics, the Olympic Stadium was reconfigured as designed into the baseball-specific Turner Field, serving as the home of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball from 1997 until 2016. The stadium is now the home of the Georgia State University Panthers football team.
UTAH OLYMPIC OVAL
Built in 2001, the Utah Olympic Oval was used as a venue to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. During the games, the Olympic Oval was used to host the speed skating events. Known for the ‘Fastest Ice on Earth’, the Utah Olympic Oval is home to over 100 world records in speed skating – during the 2002 Olympics, 10 Olympic Records and 9 World Records were set.
UTAH OLYMPIC PARK
Located in Park City, Utah, the Utah Olympic Park was built to host events for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The park served as the host for the bobsleigh, skeleton, luge, ski jumping, and Nordic combined events. Today, Olympic and developmental athletes continue to use the facility as a training center.
Olympic Training Centers
US OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC TRAINING CENTER
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs is the flagship training center for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the Olympic Training Center programs. The national headquarters for USA Swimming and USA Shooting are located at this facility. Athletes who train here are selected by their sport’s governing body.
WORLD ARENA ICE HALL
Home to many world-class figure skaters, the World Arena Ice Hall in Colorado Springs is one of the best training facilities in the world. With both NHL and Olympic regulated sheets of ice and plenty of additional training resources, this Ice Hall has attracted athletes from all over to train.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS – DISABILITY RESOURCE & EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
Tim Nugent, a US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame member, founded a ground-breaking program for student-athletes with Disabilities at the University of Illinois. The program has since made the university into a major center for para-athletics, producing hundreds of Paralympic medalists and winners of multiple major marathons in the wheelchair division.
PLASSMAN ATHLETIC CENTER AT TURNSTONE
The Turnstone Center for Children and Adults with Disabilities has been providing adaptive sports and recreation for more than 20 years. As one of eleven Paralympic training sites in the United States, Turnstone offers competitive and recreational opportunities in wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, power soccer, indoor rowing, adaptive golf, sled hockey, boccia and more.
RIVERSPORT OKLAHOMA
Riversport Oklahoma is an official US Olympic & Paralympic Training facility. Riversport provides elite athletes with training facilities and coaching in both whitewater and flatwater canoe/kayak and rowing.
So before the torch is extinguished, take a second during commercial breaks to check out the state-of-the-art facilities these athletes train and compete at right here on Playeasy.
From all of us at Playeasy – Good luck Team USA!
