SnOasis set to become GB Olympic hub |
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Saturday, 28 February 2009 |
WINTER sports haven SnOasis will provide a platform for British success at future Olympics, it can be revealed today.
The
£350million Great Blakenham resort - which will boast the largest
indoor ski slope in Europe when it opens in 2012 - is set to become the
national Centre of Excellence for winter sports.
Snowsport GB chief executive Mark Simmers said the move will ensure
SnOasis is to winter sports what the Manchester Velodrome has been to
cycling.
Following the opening of the Manchester Velodrome in
1994, Great Britain has gone from strength-to-strength on an
international stage, capped by Team GB's eight gold medals at last
year's Olympic Games.
And Mr Simmers believes that SnOasis - the
scale of which will be beyond anything Europe has ever seen - could
provide a similar platform for British Olympic triumph.
“If you
look at British Cycling, the impact of having a world-class base in
Manchester has been incredible,” he said. “SnOasis could do the same
for winter sports.”
Great Britain has won just 21 medals at
the last 20 winter Olympic Games, not one of which has come in alpine
skiing, however, all that could be about to change.
SnOasis
will boast facilities for 14 different winter sports, including speed
skating, bobsleigh and cross-country skiing, with athletes living on
site in a 200-bed academy hostel.
Snowsport GB is likely to
relocate its offices from Scotland to Suffolk in conjunction with the
opening of SnOasis, while the resort is also likely to bring a number
of top sports scientists, nutritionists and researchers to the area.
Mr
Simmers said: “If you turn the clock back 15 or 20 years, we have had
some great athletes, but really we have always been the plucky Brits
with a real amateur ethos.
“We can't operate like that
anymore. You need to leave no stone unturned if you want to be the best
and having a facility like SnOasis will provide a much more
professional approach. This could really change the landscape for the
whole sport.”
Noel Baxter of the British Alpine ski team said:
“The SnOasis development is a really exciting project for winter sports
in Britain. The thought of competing in front of a home crowd is unreal
- it will be amazing feeling to have the whole crowd cheering you on.
“The
facilities themselves sound amazing and something which will really
benefit not only our training, but the future of British ski racing as
we will have world class facilities on home soil.”
Dan Wakeham
of the British snowboard team added: “I'm stoked to hear about the
SnOasis development. Having a World Cup standard halfpipe in our own
back garden will be a huge boost for our training programme, cutting
down on a lot of our travel.”
Are you looking forward to the
arrival of SnOasis?
SnOasis facilities
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Ski slope: 415 long x 70m wide with a 100m drop |
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World Cup standard half pipe |
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60m x 30m ice rink |
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400m ice speed skating track |
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100m bobsleigh push start |
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1.5km dedicated cross-country skiing track |
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16m ice climbing wall |
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The UK's first ice museum |
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