Chula Vista

The San Diego National Sports Training Foundation received the first of three cash installments Thursday, leading up to a $3-million gift toward funding a U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista.

The EastLake Development Co., which is building a 3,200-acre “master-planned” community in the Lower Otay Reservoir area, where the center will be located, presented a check for $536,000 to the foundation. EastLake officials said the balance of the gift will be paid out over five years.

Richard M. Daniels, a spokesman for EastLake, said the camp will be a year-round, warm-weather facility--the first of its kind in the United States. Plans call for construction of residence, dining and recreation buildings, a sports medicine clinic, visitor center, track, pool, gymnasium, tennis courts, playing fields, offices and equipment storage areas.

Other Olympic training sites are in Colorado and Florida, but neither of those is designed for year-round use. Construction of the Chula Vista center is scheduled to begin early next year. The next Olympic Games are scheduled for Barcelona, Spain, in the summer of 1992.

Teams expected to use the facility include archery, kayaking, canoeing, cycling, rowing, synchronized swimming, team handball, track and field, volleyball and water polo.