Location | Carson, California, United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 33°51′32″N118°15′35″W / 33.85889°N 118.25972°W |
Capacity | 2,450 |
Surface | Siberian pine (250 m or 270 yd) |
Construction | |
Opened | 2004 |
Architect | Rossetti |
Structural engineer | John A. Martin & Associates |
General contractor | PCL Construction |
The VELO Sports Center is a velodrome located in Carson, California, United States. It is currently the only cycling track of its kind located in the United States. Formerly known as the ADT Event Center or LA Velodrome, it opened in 2004 on the California State University, Dominguez Hills Campus, part of the Dignity Health Sports Park complex. The facility is owned and operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).
The track has hosted the 2004 UCI Junior Track World Championships, 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, 2006-2008 UCI Track Cycling World Cups, and 2012 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships. It will host the 2028 Summer Olympics' Cycling competitions. The Official Olympic and Paralympic Training Site is home to USA Cycling’s national track cycling program, as well as for cyclists of all ages and ability levels year-round. It was the home of the Canadian Cycling Association’s national track cycling program. [1]
The current indoor velodrome was built in 2004. The $15 million, multi-use facility was designed by Rossetti Architects with structural engineer John A Martin & Associates. It is a track at 250 m (820.21 ft) per lap that is 7 m (22.97 ft) wide, and has 45 degree banks. It is made of approximately 33 mi (53.11 km) of Siberian pine, and seats approximately 2,500 spectators. The VELO Sports Center is always kept at 72 °F (22.2 °C), and 50% humidity.
The track is open to all ages and ability levels, and encourages riders of all levels to try riding the track. Everyone who rides the velodrome must be track certified. The VELO Sports Center certifies riders on Saturday mornings at 10:30. [2]
The VELO Sports Center is built just a few hundred meters south of the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics Velodrome site, which stood where the soccer stadium is now built at Dignity Health Sports Park.
On February 4, 1981, California State University Dominguez Hills was selected as the site of the Olympic velodrome. [3] CSU Dominguez Hills President Don Gerth was eager to include the university in the ’84 Olympics. When Olympic Organizing Committee Chair Peter Ueberroth asked Gerth if he would like to have the Olympic velodrome, he replied, “We’ll take it. What’s a velodrome? [4] ”
On July 9, 1981, construction began on the Olympic velodrome, and it was completed on time and under budget prior to the 8 July 1982 dedication and 7-Eleven/Bicycling Magazine Grand Prix on July 9-10th, 1982. [3] The 7-Eleven velodrome was one of only three permanent facilities built specifically for the 1984 Olympic Games. [3] The track was 333.333 metres (1,093.61 ft) in length, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, banked at 33 degrees in the turns, 9 degrees on the straights, and was made of concrete. Prior to the Games, the track experienced small hairline cracks. These were fixed by an epoxy injection system and series of grinding to reduce bumps common to concrete tracks, and the track was coated with polyurethane prior to the Olympics for the fastest possible surface. Riders said the track was “smooth but sticky." [3] Permanent stands were built to accommodate 2,000 spectators, but with temporary seating additions capacity for the Games was between 6,400 and 8,000. The Los Angeles developer and contractor Stolte Inc. built the velodrome for $3 million. Prior to the Games, the Olympic velodrome was one of the most requested venues for tours. [5]
The 1984 Games was perhaps the most successful in USA Cycling history. It was also the first Olympics to have Women's Cycling. The LAOOC petitioned for Women's Individual Sprint and Pursuit events, but the requests were denied by the IOC. Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Rebecca Twigg took the Gold and Silver Medals in the 45 women field in the Individual road race, the first in Olympic history. On the track, Mark Gorski won the Individual Sprint Gold over ‘The Cheetah’ Nelson Vails in the all USA Final, and Steve Hegg won the 4000m Individual Pursuit. Altogether the US won a record 9 medals in cycling events. After the Games it was revealed 1/3 of the US team received blood transfusions before the event, which was still 1 year before it was banned by the IOC.
During the 2028 Summer Olympics, the VELO Sports Center will host indoor track cycling as well as the fencing portion of Modern Pentathlon. [6]
The VELO Sports Center is a multi-use facility that has hosted volleyball and basketball tournaments, Taekwondo Tournaments, and most recently the 2013 CrossFit Games. It is also the home of ERO-Sports, [7] a world leader in bike fitting and aerodynamics testing. Using the new Track Aero System developed by Montreal-based company Alphamantis, ERO-Sports has effectively brought wind tunnel testing into the real world on the velodrome.
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles.
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement curve.
The 1984 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the second time that Los Angeles had hosted the Games, the first being in 1932. California was the home state of the incumbent U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games. These were the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch.
The 1932 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held during the worldwide Great Depression, with some nations not traveling to Los Angeles as a result; 37 countries competed, compared to the 46 at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, and even then-U.S. President Herbert Hoover did not attend the Games. The organizing committee did not report the financial details of the Games, although contemporary newspapers stated that the Games had made a profit of US$1 million.
Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignity Health Sports Park tennis stadium, a track-and-field facility, and the VELO Sports Center velodrome. It is approximately 14 miles (23 km) south of downtown Los Angeles, and its primary tenant is the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer (MLS). The main stadium was also home to the Los Angeles Wildcats of the XFL in 2020. The LA Galaxy II of MLS Next Pro play their home matches at the complex's track and field facility. For 2020 and 2021, the stadium served as the temporary home of the San Diego State Aztecs football team.
California State University, Dominguez Hills is a public university in Carson, California. It was founded in 1960 and is part of the California State University (CSU) system.
Manchester Velodrome is an indoor Olympic-standard cycle-racing track in Manchester, England, which opened in 1994. Part of the National Cycling Centre, the facility has been home to British Cycling since 1994, coinciding with the nation's rise to track cycling dominance at World and Olympic level. The velodrome was also home to UCI ProTeam Ineos Grenadiers, formerly known as Team Sky between 2010 and 2019, a period when the team won 6 Tour de France, 2 Vuelta a Espana and 1 Giro d'Italia with Great Britain riders.
Lee Valley VeloPark is a cycling centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, England. It is owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and it was opened to the public in March 2014. The facility was one of the permanent venues for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Dunc Gray Velodrome is an Australian velodrome located at Bass Hill approximately 5 kilometres north west of the Sydney suburb of Bankstown. The cycling venue for the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Dunc Gray Velodrome was opened on 28 November 1999 with an opening ceremony which included performances by local talent Darren Sharp and other community groups. The Velodrome is named after Dunc Gray, the first Australian to win a cycling gold medal at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932.
The LA84 Foundation is a private, nonprofit institution created by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to manage Southern California's endowment from the 1984 Olympic Games. Under an agreement made in 1979, 40 percent of any surplus was to stay in Southern California, with the other 60 percent going to the United States Olympic Committee. The total surplus was $232.5 million. Southern California's share was approximately $93 million.
The Rio Olympic Velodrome, officially the Velódromo Municipal do Rio, is a velodrome located in the Barra Olympic Park sports complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Built as a replacement for the former Barra Velodrome, the venue hosted track cycling events during the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics. Following the conclusion of the games, the velodrome is now a part of the Olympic Training Center and will house the Rio Olympic Museum in 2024.
The Olympic Velodrome for the track cycling events at the 1984 Summer Olympics was located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. Constructed between 1981 and 1982, the velodrome was sponsored by the American convenience store chain 7-Eleven.
Michael Benjamin Blatchford is an American professional track cyclist. Considered one of the youngest and most dynamic American sprinters on the present-day track circuit, Blatchford has held two Pan American and four U.S. national championship titles in his career resume since he scored his first triumph as an eighteen-year-old junior in 2004. He also represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics and eventually led off the Americans for the silver medal in men's team sprint at the 2011 Pan American Games. Blatchford currently races for Project London 2012 pro cycling team, and works as a resident athlete for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The Valley Preferred Cycling Center (VPCC), also known as the Lehigh Valley Velodrome or simply T-Town, is a professional cycling center and a velodrome located in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania. It serves as the Lehigh Valley's main track cycling stadium. The velodrome is operated by Velodrome Fund, a non-profit organization. that promotes competitive cycling, youth fitness, and adult wellness activities for the Lehigh Valley.
Paris 2024 is the successful bid to bring the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and the XVII Paralympic Games, to the French capital city. Paris formally announced its intention to bid on 23 June 2015 – the date on which Olympic Day is globally celebrated. Following withdrawals in the 2024 Summer Olympics bidding process that led to just two candidate cities, the IOC announced that the 2028 Summer Olympics would be awarded at the same time as the 2024 Games. After Los Angeles agreed on 31 July 2017 to host the 2028 Games. It was officially announced at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.
The Olympic Training Center Velodrome, also known as the 7-11 Velodrome, is a velodrome in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The 2016–17 UCI Track Cycling World Cup was a multi-race series over a track cycling season. It was the 25th edition of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup organised by the UCI. The series ran from 4 November 2016 to 26 February 2017 and consisted of four rounds.
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