The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Lake Placid, New York.
- Venue
- United States Olympic Training Center
- Town
- Colorado, US
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Lake Placid, New York. Formerly, the USOPC also had a third OPTC in Chula Vista, California, which is now the city-owned Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center. There is a U.S. Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Michigan, and other official U.S. Olympic/Paralympic training sites are located in Oklahoma City and Edmond, Oklahoma; Carson, California; Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, Wisconsin; a USRowing training center in Oakland, California (previously in Princeton, New Jersey); Huntsville, Texas, the SPIRE Institute and Academy near Geneva, Ohio, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Some athletes preparing for the Olympics, Paralympics, and Pan American Games live at one of the OPTCs for a period of months or years, while others visit periodically with their respective national teams for training camps, coaching (especially in sports science and sports psychology), or physical testing. Foreign national teams are also granted use of the USOPTCs. The USOPTCs are all open to the general public for tourism. The Colorado Springs OPTC was the first to be built, and has been the home of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee since 1978. Its location on the former Ent Air Force Base was selected for its relatively high elevation, which is often thought to improve training effectiveness. Its facilities include an Olympic-size swimming pool, an indoor shooting range, the Olympic Training Center Velodrome, two sports centers housing numerous gymnasiums and weight rooms, and a sports science laboratory, in addition to an athlete center and dining hall, several dormitories, a visitors' center, and the offices of bo