Music: {allcanada} PAN AMERICAN GAMES COULD FEATURE PERMANENT CYCLING VELODROME

Friday, April 1, 2011

{allcanada} PAN AMERICAN GAMES COULD FEATURE PERMANENT CYCLING VELODROME

MR.BEER® Home Brewing Kits. American's #1 Home Brewing System. Makes a great gift!

TORONTO -- Canada's top cyclists could be among the biggest benefactors of the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games.

Games organizers are exploring the option of building a permanent velodrome for the event, after previously planning a temporary venue.

"There's a need," Ian Troop, CEO of the Games, said on a conference call Friday. "There is no such facility in Canada. In fact there's no such facility in the east of the United States."

Troop said the 2015 group has been in discussions with Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee about a permanent venue, and has drawn up a short-list of potential locations. He hopes to have a decision sometime in April.

Troop said to ensure the best level of competition at the Games, they're targetting a record number of qualifying events for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Part of the relevance of the Pan Ams is that they're the Olympic qualifier for several sports for the Games that fall the following year.

"Olympic qualifiers help ensure best on best and the highest level of competition possible," Troop said. "We want to position our Games as an extremely desirable destination where the best sports competition takes place on the road to Rio."

Toronto organizers are shooting for 20 events as designated Olympic qualifiers. The 2011 Pan Ams in October in Guadalajara, Mexico, will be the Olympic qualifying event for 15 disciplines in 12 sports.