The Richmond Olympic Oval
Purpose-built to host the speed skating events during the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010, the Richmond Olympic Oval has become an international centre of excellence for sport, health and wellness, culture and community recreation. Today, it is used by the local community and high-performance athletes.
It is the third-busiest tourist attraction in British Columbia, with 1,008,000 visitors in 2018. In its present configuration, the Oval offers a speed-skating track, two Olympic-sized ice surfaces, eight hardwood courts, a 200-metre running track encircling a vast multi-purpose sports zone, an indoor climbing wall, four group training studios, two yoga studios, an expansive strength and cardio centre, an indoor rowing and paddling centre, a dedicated high-performance training centre, meeting rooms, a theatre, a sporting goods retail store, and an integrated sports medicine centre. It also houses the first Olympic museum in Canada, ‘The Olympic Experience’, an interactive museum showcasing and celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and a member of the Olympic Museums Network.
In addition, the Oval is a national centre for high-performance sport. The venue is home of Volleyball Canada Women’s National team and of Field Hockey Canada, and works as a high-performance training centre for Table Tennis Canada, Climbing Escalade Canada and Wheelchair Rugby Canada. The Oval hosts national and international sporting events which have included the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix, Judo Pacific International, Fencing World Cups and the Karate-do Goju-kai Global Championships.
The Richmond Olympic Oval is visited by international delegations planning for the legacy use of their facilities. In 2017, groups from Hebei, Beijing, Bloomage Biotechnology China, the Korean Institute of Sports Science, researchers from the Korean Sport Promotion Foundation and the Hyundai Research Institute were able to tour the Oval and learn about legacy-planning best practices in preparation for the Olympic Winter Games 2018 and 2022 respectively.
The Oval is owned by the City of Richmond and operated by the Richmond Olympic Oval Corporation.