Today I had the opportunity to visit the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista where athletes train to follow their dreams of getting a Gold Medal. The facility located in Southern California has trained thousands of athletes that have made it to the Olympics, including several who have walked away with medals.
The USOC Training facility is only one of three in the United States, thats main goal is to help train athletes on a continuing basis. The facility in Chula Vista is on the sprawling 155 acre piece of land that is gorgeously landscaped with top notch facilities for the Olympians whether they need to hit the brand new archery fields, the BMX tracks, tennis courts or many of the other amenities on property..
The facility was the only training center that was built from the ground up dedicated to the development and performance of future American athletes. The center is also the only year round all weather facility for the olympic hopefuls as the other facilities are located in colder climates, one in Lake Placid New York, and the other in Colorado Springs Colorado, which is also home to the United States Olympic Commitiee.
The center focuses on several sports with facilities in place to serve athletes in archery, beach volleyball, BMX, canoe/kayak, cycling, field hockey, rowing, rugby, soccer, tennis, track & field, and triathlon. The center even offers athletes of Winter Olympics the opportunity to do some cross-training.
By The Numbers
- 4 – Natural turf soccer fields
- 6 – Sand volleyball courts
- 3 – State-of-the-art BMX tracks
- 133 – Beds
- 155 – Acres
- 1,000 – Meals per day
- 5,400 – Square-foot strength and conditioning center
The United States Olympic Committiee complied a list of Olympians that have trained at some point at the facility in the past four years and that total was over 200 athletes. That means that 18% of the 555 American athletes in Rio trained in Southern California at the Olympic Training Center.
Archery: Mackenzie Brown (OTC), Brady Ellison (OTC), Zach Garrett (OTC)
Beach volleyball: Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad High)
BMX: Nic Long (El Capitan High), Alise Post (Chula Vista resident), Corben Sharrah (OTC), Connor Fields (OTC) and Brooke Crain (OTC)
Track cycling: Sarah Hammer (Temecula resident, Omnium/team pursuit), Jennifer Valente (San Diego resident, team pursuit)
Equestrian: Steffen Peters (San Diego, dressage)
Gymnastics: Nicole Ahsinger (Scripps Ranch High, trampoline)
Rowing: Kerry Simmonds (Torrey Pines High)
Men’s rugby: Perry Baker, Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender, Andrew Durutalo, Nate Ebner, Madison Hughes, Carlin Isles, Folau Niua, Ben Pinkelman, Zack Test, Maka Unufe, Chris Wyles (entire team based at OTC)
Women’s rugby: Ryan Carlyle, Victoria Folayan, Kelly Griffin, Kathryn Johnson, Jillion Potter, Lauren Doyle, Joanne (Nana) Fa’avesi, Carmen Farmer, Alev Kelter, Richelle Stephens, Jessica Javelet, Bui Baravilala (entire team based at OTC)
Sailing: Paris Henken (Coronado High, 49erFX), Caleb Paine (Point Loma High, Finn), Briana Provancha (Point Loma High, 470)
Track: Andrew Evans (OTC, discus), Whitney Ashley (SDSU, discus), Chris Benard (OTC, triple jump), Will Claye (OTC, triple jump), Ryan Crouser (OTC, shot put), Sam Crouser (OTC, javelin), Sean Furey (OTC, javelin), Jeff Henderson (OTC, long jump), Darrell Hill (OTC, shot put), Cyrus Hostetler (OTC, javelin), Charles Jock (Mission Bay High, 800m), Meb Keflezighi (San Diego High, marathon), Joe Kovacs (OTC, shot put), Desiree (Davila) Linden (Hilltop High, marathon), Heather Miller-Koch (OTC, heptathlon), John Nunn (Bonsall resident, 50k race walk), Brittney Reese (OTC, long jump), Ricky Robertson (OTC, high jump)
Tennis: Coco Vandeweghe (Rancho Santa Fe, doubles)
Triathlon: Greg Billington (Poway resident), Joe Maloy (Poway resident)
Men’s volleyball: David Lee (Granite Hills High)
Women’s volleyball: Carli Lloyd (Fallbrook High), Karsta Lowe (La Costa Canyon High)
Men’s water polo: Alex Bowen (Santana High), Jesse Smith (Coronado High)
Foreigners: Sarah Attar (Escondido High, Saudi Arabia, track), Shanieka Thomas (Jamaica, triple jump), Joao Vitor de Oliveira (San Diego resident, Brazil, 110 hurdles), Sam Willoughby (Chula Vista resident, Australia, BMX), Gibran Lajud (Tijuana Xolos, soccer), Alexa Moreno (Baja California, gymnastics), Daniel Corral (Ensenada, gymnastics), Tania Arrayales (Baja California, fencing sabre), Anthony Dean (Chula Vista resident, Australia, BMX), Lauren Reynolds (Chula Vista resident, Australia, BMX), Bodi Turner (Lakeside, Australia, BMX), Tamires de Liz (San Diego resident, Brazil, 4×100-meter relay)
Rowers (part-time residents): Samuel Dommer, Austin Hack, Alex Karwoski, Steve Kasprzyk, Glenn Ochal, Samuel Ojserkis, Hans Struzyna, Mike DiSanto, Robb Munn (men’s eight); Nareg Guregian, Anders Weiss (men’s pair); Matt Miller, Henrik Rummel, Seth Weil, Charlie Cole (men’s four); Anthony Fahden, Edward King, Tyler Nase, Robin Prendes (men’s four lightweight); Kate Bertko (women’s lightweight double sculls); Grace Luczak, Felice Mueller (women’s pair); Meghan O’Leary, Ellen Tomek (women’s double sculls); Adrienne Martelli, Grace Latz, Megan Kalmoe, Tracy Eisser (women’s quad sculls); Emily Regan, Amanda Polk, Lauren Schmetterling, Meghan Musnicki, Amanda Elmore, Eleanor Logan, Katelin Snyder, Tessa Gobbo (women’s eight)