Whistler Olympic Park

The Whistler Olympic Park XXI Winter Olympics Venue

The Whistler Olympic Park has been nominated as one of the many important venues for the 21st Winter Olympic Games to be held at Vancouver, British Columbia, Georgia. Situated amidst the beautiful Callaghan Valley that is famous for its skiing activities, this place is, as it is, a very popular spot amongst tourists from all across the world.

Brief History

The construction of the place was permanently completed in the fall of 2007. As much as $100 million was spent in building the world class facilities at the venue which was aimed to serve the back country and cross country ski events. Thereon on November 22, 2008, the Whistler Olympic Park was officially inaugurated and held open for public use. The official inaugural ceremony took place at the 1020 square meters of day lodge area to mark the beginning of the public skiing season.

The Whistler Olympic Park is a unique place to enjoy. Featuring 35 kilometers of competition trails and distinctive recreational options, this place is particularly groomed for both skate and classic skiers irrespective of their beginner’s level expertise or expert’s level expertose. The added advantage with this park is that the skiers can enjoy the fun of night skiing on the lightened trails and also avail the awesome biathlon ranges and the snowshoe trails. Some of the world class amenities available at the Whistler Olympic Park include the trail passes and the cross country ski rentals along with the yummy snacks and hot/cold drinks for the occasional servings. This venue has the capacity of hosting as many as 12000 spectators which is quite a decent crowd to cheer for the participants.

Location

The Park is located amidst the Madeley Creek basin within the Callaghan Valley area. Whistler Olympic Park is located about 20 kilometers to the south of the Whistler province. Bounded by picturesque snow-capped peaks and spotless forests on all sides, it is a view that will elate your city-set eyes at the very first instance.

Winter Olympic Sports That Will Take Place At The Whistler Olympic Park

It is the first time that the Whistler Olympic Park is about to hold such an extraordinary sports event of international standard. The park is all set to serve as the location for the Nordic events for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, . This venue will be hosting the following sports for the event,

28 Olympic Events which counts to as much as 1/3rd of the entire event.

• 10 events for Biathlon
• 12 events for Cross-country skiing
• 3 events for Nordic combined
• 3 events for Ski jumping

The park will also host 32 events for the Paralympic Winter Games which counts to half of the total event. This would include,

• 10 events for the Biathlon category
• 22 events for the Cross-country skiing category

The events for the Olympic Games will be held at the 1km2 core area region which comprises of three diverse stadiums. These three stadiums will be hosting the ski jumping, biathlon and the cross country events respectively. All the three stadiums are located at a distance of 400 meters from each other.

More or less 15 kilometers of special competition trails have been constructed for Olympic athletes in particular.  These comprise of two 5 kilometer loops meant for the cross country skiing events and a single 4 kilometer loop for the biathlon events.

At the Whistler Olympic Park, the entire set of events for the Nordic combined category (only the cross country skiing part) and the cross country skiing and the biathlon category for the Paralympic Nordic games will commence from the cross country stadium in particular. Whereas, the biathlon event for the Winter Olympics in particular will commence at a different stadium especially meant for the biathlon events.

This stadium comprises of as many as 30 lanes and a completely electronic mark system that is meant to detect and show the specific time and the hit or miss for each and every fired bullet. Both the two ski jumps at the Whistler Olympic Park stadium, the large hill and the normal hill are enhanced by one of the World’s most urbane and refined ski jump snow infrigidation systems and track setting systems.