OKC Named Olympic Training Site

Yesterday was a great day for our city and state. Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma River were officially named the USA Olympic training site for USA Rowing and Canoe/Kayak by the United State of America Olympics Committee. Having the USA Olympic brand associated with Oklahoma means our facilities will house tomorrow’s Olympians. What an honor and thrill this is to change something that used to be a simple, mowed field. It makes me wonder what current Oklahoma grassy field can be future NASA launch pads or symphony halls.

Along, with the river being named the official site for Rowing and Canoe/Kayak, The University of Central Oklahoma was named the Olympic Training Site for archery and volleyball, as well as Paralympics sports. I don’t even think we can begin to realize how special it is to have two sites contributing to Team USA’s mission .

Seeing the civic, business and sporting communities come support the announcement at the Chesapeake Boathouse points to the vision our leaders had and the undeniable effort everyone gave to make this happen. The collaborative brain power to get this done is as vast as the river is long, as are the benefits OKC will see from this milestone. I know that Oklahoma is ready to do its part to support the mission of the USOC, and to support United States Olympic and Paralympics athletes in achieving sustained competitive excellence and to preserve the Olympic Ideals which can only serve to grow stronger and more united communities.

What started as a dream 16 years ago is ending with dreams, the dreams of the athletes who come to Oklahoma to train for the Olympics. The river and these athletes parallel each other in that sense, both are rooted in hard work and perseverance. May our nation’s future gold medalists look back at the Oklahoma River and see a place where dreams become reality.