In my first post I wanted to share the story of one Canadian town which continues to be touched by the 1988 Alberta Games. Its story challenges us to think about how we ensure the Games really is a catalyst for Britain in 2012.
Banff itself is some 500 miles from Vancouver. As you drive to Banff from Calgary Airport you pass a town called Canmore. It is not a big place – its total population (permanent and non permanent) being around 18,000. Canmore grew up steadily from the late nineteenth century onwards – benefitting from being on the Canadian Pacific Railway route, and critically the discovery of coal in the town. This combination guaranteed success until 1979, when dwindling demand for coal means that Canmore Mines Ltd. ceased operations. Canmore's economic future seemed dismal until the announcement in the early 1980s that Alberta would host the 1988 Winter Olympics and that Canmore would play host to the Nordic events (cross country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined, and blind cross country skiing).
Ultimately this provided the impetus for the regeneration of Canmore to the tourism and recreation destination it is today. However, if one looks more closely at Canmore’s story, the journey has not been linear and successful transformation of the town is still not guaranteed. There seem to have been three mistakes in Canmore’s regeneration which offer us some lessons for London:
• Lesson 1 – Sporting Investment does not finish with the Olympic Games
The Canmore Nordic Centre was built with the specific purpose of hosting the Olympic Games in 1988. This it did very successfully, however by its own admission the investment stopped the moment the Games left town. Over time elite events stopped coming – and with them the quality of the facilities dwindled. It was only in 2005 that the authorities reinvested in the facilities to bring them up to the standard required to host World Cup events. The venue now hosts Canadian teams in these disciplines….and as a result remains a magnate for enthusiastic amateurs like myself.
Given the reality of Lesson 1, there is an ongoing need to balance the books after the Games. While ongoing World Cup events help, they do not do this on their own. Even in Canada, Nordic skiing is a minority sport. During the summer months the Centre converts to include mountain biking facilities and plays host to several national and international mountain bike events annually as well as orienteering and disk golf. It even hosts an 18 "hole" disc golf course during the summer months. The Nordic Centre offers services full time such as a cafeteria, meeting rooms, equipment rentals and lessons.
We spent a good amount of time making use of these facilities during our break. We took a lesson, went out on the trails, took Conor our son on his first pair of skis at the age of 2 1/2, and then had a big, and mercifully warm lunch in the cafe. Conor ate them out of tomatoes after ransacking the lost property for some sunglasses. We watched people from 8-80 out on the slopes, and saw hundreds of schoolchildren arrive for lessons after school.
The most incredible thing about the Centre, however, was the extent to which it now manages to balance its elite and public facility responsibilities. As Dad and I were learning to hill climb, the Russian and Kazakhstan squads pulled out to pass us on their training run for the World Cup Nordic Event this coming weekend. Our lesson was given by a member of the Australian national team. His parting words were ‘the Olympic course is up there – it’ll be hard graft, but give it a crack it you want’. It felt a tremendous privilege to be out there with the elite as well as my family.
• Lesson 3 – Sport alone is not enough…
Sadly, despite learning lessons 2 and 3, Canmore has one further lesson to overcome. The town itself has yet to move into becoming a fully viable concern for the twenty-first century, and sustainability remains elusive. Concerns over urban growth adjacent to Banff National Park has led to a limit on future development. The town is expected to reach its maximum "build out" following the completion of the SilverTip and Three Sisters Mountain Village developments sometime around 2015–2020. Recession has hit Canmore hard, however. Three Sisters went into receivership and burnt down during later stages of completion in the spring of 2009.
Ongoing salvation remains frustratingly at a distance for Canmore, but it continues to try very hard indeed. Witness the efforts made for next weekend to convince the International Ski Federation to make Canmore a full-time stop on the Nordic World Cup tour. I am sure Eurosport will be showing the action this weekend if you want to see the fruits of their labours. Those hills are steeper than they look!
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