The Rio Olympic Velodrome, officially the Velódromo Municipal do Rio (Rio Municipal Velodrome), is a velodrome located in the Barra Olympic Park sports complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Built as a replacement for the former Barra Velodrome, the venue hosted track cycling events during the 2016 Summer Olympics, and is scheduled to host track cycling events during the 2016 Summer Paralympics. After the conclusion of the games, the velodrome will form part of the Olympic Training Center.
Design
The Rio Olympic Velodrome was designed by Schuermann Architects, a German design group led by Ralph Schuermann. The group had previously designed the Laoshan Velodrome for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, along with six other Olympic cycling venues and twenty World Championship venues. The wooden track is made from timber sourced from the Siberian pine, considered to be the fastest surface for track cycling.
History
Demolition of Barra Velodrome
The Barra Velodrome, one of three venues built as part of the City of Sports Complex in Barra da Tijuca for the 2007 Pan American Games, was originally planned to host cycling events for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. In early 2013, the International Cycling Union (UCI), the governing body of sports cycling, deemed the velodrome as unsuitable for hosting Olympic events, citing pillars obscuring the view of spectators and judges, and cyclists' inability to reach significant speeds on the track. The cost of upgrading the venue to UCI standards was projected to be as great as building a completely new venue, and thus it was decided that the Barra Velodrome was to be demolished in favour of building a new one at a different site in the park. After the Barra Velodrome was demolished, work on the Rio Olympic Velodrome began, with British firm 3D Reid, who designed the Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, was chosen alongside Rio de Janeiro-based firm BLAC Architects to help advise design development of the Velodrome. Tenders to construct and operate the venue were opened in October 2013 and won by Brazilian engineering firm Tecnosolo S.A, at a budget of R$136.9 million. The cost did not include the budget for track installation, which was to be the responsibility of the Olympic Organizing Committee. The dismantled velodrome was to be given to Goiânia before the city reconsidered due to the high maintenance costs, and the structure were eventually sent to the city of Pinhais, where they wound up unused for years. Only in 2019 the project for a sports complex centered around the velodrome started, with construction advancing by 2021.
Construction, setbacks and progress
Construction of the velodrome was marred by many issues and controversies, which included numerous delays, poor working conditions and financial difficulties. As with every track cycling venue purpose-built for the Olympics since the 1960 games, the Rio Olympic Velodrome faced cost overruns by its final year of construction. Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli warned as early as November 2014 that the velodrome had become a concern for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – the venue was originally planned to be complete by the end of 2015, but delays had organizers worried that it would not open until early 2016 instead, despite the UCI pressing that this would not be the case. Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes admitted in December 2014 that work on the velodrome was three weeks behind schedule, and evaluations by the IOC in February 2015 found that substantial work still remained in order for the venue to be complete by scheduled test events prior to the Olympics, describing "very aggressive timelines that will need to be met over the coming months." Despite these troubles, Mário Andrada, a spokesperson for the Rio Organizing Committee, stated, "the delays they cited concern the test events and not to the Games... the velodrome, even though a little late, will not impact the test event. We are counting on it."