Supporting Olympic success
The Tokyo Olympics drew to a close this weekend, and Team GB’s finish with 65 medals is an inspirational achievement. This success presents a great reminder to us of the positive impact our work has for both elite athletes and communities alike.
We are so proud that nearly half of the GB medals were won by athletes who trained at facilities designed by FaulknerBrowns, such as the National Cycling Centre in Manchester or the University of Stirling Swimming Pool. Beyond the UK, venues like Sportcampus Zuiderpark, Omnisport Apeldoorn and the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton have produced numerous medal winners at Tokyo for the Netherlands and Canada. These facilities have genuinely driven their countries to international success.
All these venues provide the environment and equipment needed to develop athletes, but also have strong community programmes. This is a reminder that performance and community leisure can coexist, and thrive off each other.
Just as the personal stories of our athletes have inspired the public, from Tom Daley’s poolside knitting to Duncan Scott’s historic 4 medals at a single games, the best performance training facilities can inspire the communities around them, by combining places for competition, training and fitness with places to find fun and confidence in movement.
The National Cycling Centre in Manchester, where winning athletes such as Laura and Jason Kenney train, is widely considered as the most well used and successful velodrome in the world. This is down in part to a flexible design that facilitates a programme of activities designed to encourage participation at all levels of ability.
This approach underpins our design for Moorways Sports Village in Derby. The ten lane, 50 metre swimming pool there will be divisible into 3 sections for club and performance use, but also sits alongside a waterpark for families, a learner pool, sauna and steam rooms, a café and soft play area. The project will be completed at the end of this Olympic year and will create a facility where high performance swimming and wellbeing can enhance each other.
Designing facilities that promote a symbiotic relationship between elite performance and community participation is fundamental to our work. We look forward to delivering our next generation of facilities such as our Community Velodrome in Edmonton and Helmond Swimming Pool in the Netherlands.
