Calgary Jump Closure Press Release SJC
Calgarians Express overwhelming support for an Olympic ski jumping facility in Calgary
New Poll examines attitudes to an Olympic bid among Calgarians and Albertans
Calgary, AB, April 12, 2018– Ski Jumping Canada (SJC) recently commissioned Janet Brown Opinion Research to conduct a scientific poll that asked if Calgarians want a 2026 Olympic bid which includes a ski jumping facility in Calgary.
The poll found 78 percent of Calgarians want ski jumping to happen in Calgary if Calgary is chosen to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. The poll also found 55 percent of Calgarians support Calgary bidding on the 2026 Winter Olympics. (A copy of the poll result is Below.)
“This result shows that Calgarians continue to have a strong affection for the Ski jumping facility at Winsport,” says Todd Stretch, Vice Chair of Ski Jumping Canada. “A huge majority of Calgarians feel that Ski Jumping should remain as a centrepiece of a Calgary Olympics. They look at those jumps on the Calgary skyline and feel a strong sense of pride.”
WinSport recently announced that they intend to close the Ski Jumping Facility this October if they do not receive additional funding despite over 8000 jumps a year happening at the facility. Ski Jumping Canada is hoping to work with Winsport to solve the funding issues.
“We have asked Winsport repeatedly to be transparent and provide numbers on what it would realistically cost to operate the jumps,” says Stretch. “Right now, they say $500,000 a year but that is almost double what other facilities cost, and that number would make the Calgary jumps the most expensive ski jumps in the world to run. If Winsport closes all of these jumps, there will be no 60-meter ski jump and no spring, summer and fall ski jump training in Canada. in Canada. This means young Canadian athletes will have nowhere to train and transition to Olympic level jumps, and frankly, it will mean the end of Canada having a National Ski Jumping Team, a sport we have competed in since 1928.”
BACKGROUND ON STATUS OF SKI JUMPING IN CALGARY
WinSport management continues to move away from the reason WinSport was established, preserving the legacy of the 1988 Calgary Olympics and moving towards operating an amusement park. “Shutting down the Ski Jumps in favour of tube parks and zip lines is an abandonment of the reason WinSport was established,” says Gregor Linsig, National Team Coach. “The closure of this facility means the end of two national Olympic sports programs: both Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined will be unable to bring new athletes into the program and Canada will no longer be able to compete in either of these sports.”
“WinSport management is not following the mandate of WinSport in maintaining our Olympic facilities at world-class levels and using them to provide opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to watch, learn and excel in winter sports,” says Linsig. “We would be willing as an organization to be responsible for management of the ski jumping facility to guarantee the future of this treasured Calgary landmark. It would only take 6 meters of landscaping on the outrun to make these jumps useable for an Olympics.”
- In the last 4 Olympics the jump centre in Calgary has produced 19 Olympic starts–14 individual athletes.
- WinSport originally claimed it costs $300,000 annually to maintain the facility. Over the last few weeks they have raised the amount to $400,000 and now $500,000 while refusing to provide any support of those numbers. Most Ski Jump facilities in the world have annual budgets far less than the budget WinSport insists on and operate both K90 and K114 meter jumps.
- WinSport claims the K114 jump was obsolete and unsafe two years after the 1988 Calgary games. While the evolution in jumping techniques at this time enabled athletes to jump much further, the fact remains that our athletes could still use the K114 today with minor modifications.
- WinSport claims that the facility was out of date two years after the Olympics, yet the World Junior Championships were held in here in 1997, a Nordic combined world cup B in 2001, a Ladies Continental Cup in 2008, and a NorAm Championship in 2012. All major events.
- WinSport claims cost to update the facility is 70 million dollars. This is odd given that the facility at Whistler was built for $40 million and the recent facility in PyeongChang South Korea was built for $30 million. The Park City jumps, built for the 2002 Salt Lake City games, were built for $28 million, and included excavating the lower part of a mountain.
- WinSport continues to claim that a jumper today would “land on the other side of the TransCanada highway.” A factual error considering that the other side of the highway is just under a kilometer away.
- In 2014, Alberta Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined (ASJNC) paid $60,000 to install a refrigeration unit on the K90, designed to chill the tracks and keep them in optimal condition during the winter. They also paid to reprofile the jump to bring it to FIS standard.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Todd Stretch at Ski Jumping Canada or email at mailto: tstretch@skijumpingcanada.com.
