A Visit to Olympic Gold Country

It’s difficult not to wax patriotic walking through the U.S. Olympic Training Center here. Everything is awash in red, white and blue, USA and that old “going for the gold” spirit.

“We’re becoming a real attraction because people go for the ‘rah-rah, apple pie’ atmosphere,” says Marguerite Gigliello, manager of operations at the 36-acre facility.

With the 1988 Summer Olympics now in full swing in Seoul, South Korea, interest in the facility has heightened. By August, attendance had already surpassed last year’s total of about 50,000 visitors, Gigliello said.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Olympic facility, which was built in 1977, is that admission is free and there’s plenty of parking. There are 1 1/2-hour tours, including a 20-minute film, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Tour highlights include the U.S. Olympic Shooting Center, largest indoor range in the Western Hemisphere, completed in 1985 at a cost of $2.7 million.

Swimming Flume

And a must-see is the $1-million swimming Flume, constructed this year with surplus revenue from the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games.

The Flume, only one in the United States, is a steel channel of circulating water in which researchers can simulate altitudes from Death Valley to Pikes Peak. Altitude is a major influence on athletic performance, and now U.S. swimmers can prepare for all conditions.

The tour passes through the Sports Science Building, where you can watch athletes being scrutinized for cardiovascular efficiency and biomechanical technique.

If you don’t mind getting in a little workout of your own, walk the half-mile to the U.S. Olympic Training Center Velodrome, a banked track for cycling. You may get a glimpse of the spokeless, $45,000 carbon fiber track bikes that the U.S. team uses. Better stay off the track, however; bikes reach speeds of more than 40 m.p.h. and they don’t have brakes.

If you are more inclined to four wheels, the only banked roller-skating track in the country is within the Velodrome.

Athletes in Action

Olympic and other elite athletes live and train year-round at the 750-bed Olympic facility, so you are likely to catch some of the action. You’re free to wander throughout much of the facility.

On my own walking tour, I saw a free exhibition team handball match between the U.S. women and the Hungarian National Team.

Team handball--an Olympic sport since 1972--is “a combination of basketball, soccer, water polo without the water and probably a few other things,” says Amy Gamble, 23, of Glendale, W. Va. She plays a position called circle runner on the women’s team. “It really is hard sometimes, dedicating yourself to a sport no one really understands.”

Fact is, if you expect to find prime-time jocks like Carl Lewis or Matt Bionditraining here, you’ll be disappointed. The big names, along with athletes in revenue sports like basketball, are usually subsidized, thus they can train in their own environment.

In Colorado Springs you’ll find mostly athletes in the so-called minor sports, including table tennis, weightlifting and cycling.

Free Room and Board

“They’re the athletes who need us the most,” Gigliello says. “We give them free room and board so they can train.”

The athletes’ accommodations are rather austere, resembling military barracks. The facility is, in fact, on a former Air Force base. The city of Colorado Springs, home of the Air Force Academy, leases the land to the U.S. Olympic Committee for $1 a year.

There are two additional Olympic training centers--in Lake Placid, N.Y., and Marquette, Mich., but the Colorado Springs facility is by far the largest and most comprehensive.

About the only thing planners forgot was a place for the public to eat. The dining hall is closed to visitors. But you can pack a picnic lunch and throw a blanket down at Olympic Park, a football field’s worth of grass bounded by the five interlocking rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red that symbolize the Olympic Games.

Room and board in Colorado Springs are free only for athletes. Most prized are accommodations closest to Pikes Peak, the 14,110-foot beacon that inspired Katherine Lee Bates to pen “America, The Beautiful” in 1893.

Timber Lodge offers cabins (beginning at $35 double occupancy) among pine trees in the foothills of Pikes Peak. Contact Timber Lodge, 3627 W. Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs 80904, or call (719) 636-3941.

Rooms at the Adobe-styled El Colorado Lodge in nearby Manitou Springs start at about $30 and feature high-beamed ceilings and fireplaces. Contact El Colorado Lodge, 23 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs 80829, or call (719) 655-5485.

The creme de la creme of hotels is The Broadmoor, with its bell tower and Italian Renaissance decor. Rooms start at $170. The Broadmoor, P.O. Box 1439, Colorado Springs 80901, or phone toll-free (800) 634-7711.

While you’re in town, try the Rocky Mountain trout at San Francisco Seafood Restaurant (2116 Vickers Drive). They’ll bake, broil, saute or blacken it for you for $9.95.

And for a taste of the Old West, the Flying W Ranch (a quarter-mile north of the Garden of the Gods, then west one mile on Flying W Ranch Road) serves up a chuck wagon dinner (barbecued beef, baked potatoes and Flying W baked beans) and tops it off with cowboy singing, dancing and storytelling. The price is right at $9.50 for adults, $6 for children.

Homemade Ice Cream

For dessert, the Colorado City Creamery (three locations, including 2602 W. Colorado Ave.) serves homemade ice cream.

Colorado Springs has a smorgasbord of things to do. For $4 per adult and $1 a child, you can drive up Pikes Peak, named for Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who discovered the area in 1806.

Or go via the Cog Railway, custom-made, red-and-white Swiss trains that take you through groves of aspens and hidden valleys, up 8,000 feet to the summit.

The ride also provides a spectacular view of Garden of the Gods, a vibrant cluster of red sandstone rocks dating back at least 1 million years.

Although the climb is at times steep, trains are locked in place by the cogs. Trains run from 8 a.m. to 5:20 p.m., a round trip taking three hours and 10 minutes. Cost is $15 for adults, $7 for children. You must have reservations. Call (719) 685-5401.

Explorer Pike would no doubt be delighted with the Royal Gorge Bridge, at 1,200 feet the world’s highest suspension bridge. Pike tried several times in 1806 to traverse the Royal Gorge, then declared: “It can’t be done.”

In 1929 it was done by a bridge-building Texan, and now you can cross the Royal Gorge by aerial tramway ($6 for adults, $4 for children).

In case you catch some of that gold Olympic spirit, nearby Cripple Creek is a former gold-rush town. The name derives from a treacherous rock-laden stream that crippled many an animal crossing it.

If you’re in the market for some adrenaline-pumping, Olympic-style action, you also happen to be in some of the country’s best white-water rafting territory.

A three-hour trip with Echo Canyon River Expeditions in Colorado Springs costs $26 for adults, $19 for children. It takes you down the Arkansas River, which has its wild spots but is manageable for beginners.

Rafting trips are available from April 1 to Oct. 15. Write Echo Canyon River Expeditions, Box 1002, Colorado Springs 80901, or call toll-free (800) 367-2167)

For more information on travel to the Colorado Springs area, contact the Visitors Bureau, 1750 E. Boulder St., Colorado Springs, Colo. 80909, (800) 88-VISIT.