A visit to the USA Olympic training center in Colorado springs
During winter break, I took a ski vacation in an amazing ski resort in Colorado, called Breckenridge. But before reaching a ski resort, I spent a full day in a little city near Denver, called Colorado springs. When I was searching for interesting things to do there, I noticed that one of the must - do sights on several lists is the so - called Olympic training center.
Just imagine how many famous athletes walked through here!
Since I was in Colorado when the Winter Olympic games were happening, I decided to check that place out. After all, I was extremely curious about how does the facility where the world known athletes practice, look like.
Upon visiting the facility’s webpage, I saw that you are supposed to book a tour, so I booked one that took place about one hour and a half from booking, so I hurried to the car and drove there.
Olympic training center in Colorado springs is full of encouraging messages like this one.
Where is the USA Olympic training center situated?
You can find the Olympic training center in Colorado springs, more precisely on 1 Olympic plaza. If you are driving from Denver, it should take you about one hour and a half to get to the facility.
The way to the facility is not marked at all, so you might want to consider using a GPS. That actually surprised me, because a lot of famous places across the United states of America are usually so well marked that you do not even need to use GPS.
The USA Olympic training center has a parking lot, but it is not very big, so if you are there during a peak period, you might have to park somewhere next to the facility. You do not have to pay to enter the parking lot, because the parking fee is already included in the tour / admission price.
The main Olympic training center building.
Admission and opening times
The Olympic training center in Colorado springs is open daily from nine in the morning to five in the evening, except on Sundays, when it opens at eleven in the morning and closes at five in the evening.
The adult tour price is twelve dollars per person, which is really not much, keeping in mind how big the facility is. If you are travelling in groups of ten and more people, the tour price comes down to ten dollars per person.
What can you see there?
Like I have already mentioned before, the only way to see the Olympic training center in Colorado springs is to take a guided tour. You can either book a tour in advance (which is strongly recommended) or just show up and join the next available time slot for the tour.
If you are going there by yourself, you might as well just go there without prior booking, but if there is more than three people in your group, I would not risk going there without booking a tour time slot in advance.
The reception.
The facility offers several different sports. The ones that were introduced to us, were shooting, wrestling, swimming, cycling, gymnastics and figure skating, but there is more. Those were just the ones that we saw during our tour.
What I like about this place is the combination of olympic and paralympic sports. I am not a big fan of separating disabled people from ‘regular’ people, so I found the fact that both kinds of athletes are training side to side at this facility, extremely uplifting.
Once you arrive, you get to the front desk where you can pay for the tour, and they will tell you when the next tour will depart. Generally, tours start every thirty minutes so you will not have to wait for a long time in any case.
If there is more than fifteen minuted before your tour starts, you can check out the awesome gift shop. Most items that you can buy there, are not the cheapest, but since they are the same brands as the athletes wear, I would say it is worth paying more for a high quality item.
Apparently, the gift shop is non - profit and all the money they earn by selling the things in there, goes towards maintaining the facility and supporting the athletes. Pretty amazing, right?
Your tour will start in a movie theatre, where you will watch a short movie about the facility, their mission, things they offer, and some of the famous athletes that trained in there. After that, your tour guide will take you to several rooms across the facility, and if you are lucky enough, you might notice a famous athlete in training.
My favourite parts of the complex that we saw during the tour, were the Olympic pool (if you do the tour, listen to the numbers regarding its size and depth carefully), the wrestling 'chamber', the high altitude training chamber, and the shooting range. It is pretty cool when you can actually see people training there during the tour.
If you are going there in winter, make sure you are dressed warmly. This is a very windy area and you will be walking from building to building in a merciless winter cold.
One of the things I found hilarious during the tour, was the sign that was posted in every place where the athletes were currently practiting: 'Please do not knock on the glass and do not feed the athletes!' It sounded like we are in a big, human zoo.
One of the training rooms.
A special chamber for high altitude training.
Our tour guide was super informative, and besides the usual, not so interesting information, such as building costs and so on, he also shared some of the highlights of his work, such as bumping into a really famous athlete and not knowing who he was. Sounds like something that would happen to me!
A few words for the end…
If you are a fan of sports and you would like to see where the athletes train for their competitions, then you should definitely consider visiting the Olympic training center in Colorado springs. While the Olympic training center is not exactly situated in your typical tourist destination, it is still well worth a visit.
