Ever wondered where they trained the olympians? Definitely not at some random high school gym! In Chula Vista, this gigantic sporting complex is dedicated for the training of current and future American olympic participants.
Where
The center is about 20 minutes south of San Diego without traffic. I went on a weekend afternoon and it didn’t take that long at all to get to from Downtown San Diego.
Address: 2800 Olympic Parkway, Chula Vista, CA 91915 (the address is accurate, so just Google Maps it).
Contact number: 619-656-1500
For more information, please visit Team USA website.
Parking: Free! Once you arrive at the check-in point, just make your way to the right and park for free.
Visit
The Olympic Training Center opens Monday to Saturday for the public to visit for free from 9am to 5pm. Guided tour is every Saturday at 11am. It was quite an experience here. Although I’m not a big sport person, It was awesome to get to see all the real deal. Unfortunately, I was there late in the afternoon, so I missed the guide tour.
It was a fun experience just to wander around and take pictures with the real size fire torch, different statues, and all the big facilities. You can also take a map and walk down the Olympic Path. It is a 2 mile round trip walking path where you will see different facilities on your sides with stopping points.
I also got to see an archery competition. I have no idea if it was anything important, but it was just really cool to see how it’s done in real life. I was pretty into archery as well, and dang, these people were good! I could literally hear all the flying arrows across the field and the sound they made really reminded me of the same sound from period films or Lord of the Rings.
Overall, I highly recommend this as a cool and unique free thing to do when you’re down in San Diego. I don’t think that it makes a great individual trip, but if you happen to be in the area, this is a great place to add to your itinerary.
One Cool Thing Every Weekend 