By BFS
Director Bob Mathais in a pensive mood contemplating all the things that should be done to help athletes.
The $4 million Sports Center contains six separate gyms.
Sports Center The US Olympic Committee opened its $4 million Sports Center in July 1982. It contains six separate gymnasia and is designed to accommodate the 12 sports on the progra ms of the Olympic and Pan American Games. The 59,000 square-foot building is designed for quick change to accommodate a wide variety of sports simultaneously. The main hall which seats 2,700 spectators, is used for special events and competitions ilt the OlympiC Training Center. It consists of three gymnasia which have 118-by 58-ftltlt maple floors and can be separated by curtains to provide practice ilreas The other three gymnasia hilve resilient material floors and vMy in Sill'.
One is 100 by 58 feet, a second measu res 100 by 42 feet a nd the third is 120 by 45 feet. For international volleyball competitions, the exhibition court ceiling in one gymnasium is 41 feet, mel'ting the international requirements. The main floor of the Sports Center has two locker rooms, two athletic trainers' rooms, a first-aid room, a control room, as well as a conference room. The Sports Center has been designed to provide training/competitive facilities meeting all requirements for the following sports: archery, basketball, boxing, fencing, gymnastics, judo, table tennis, team handball, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.
Prepoured concrete panels were used in the construction of the building. The foundation consists of 75 individual caissons sunk to depths of 30 to 45 feet and spanned by poured concrete grade beams. The facility has "natural lighting" provided by 55 skylights.
Director - Bob Mathais Bob Mathais, the only two-time OlympiC decathlon gold medalist, was appointed director of the US. Olympic Training Center in 1977 In 1948, at the age of 17, Mathais gained worldwide acclaim by winning the Olympic decathlon gold medal in London. He repeated his victory in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland, establishing a yet unbeaten record as the world's only two-time Olympic decathlon champion. Mathais was elected to the US. Congress in 1966 as a representative from California and served until 1975. While a US. Representative, Mathais was a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee (now the International Relations Committee).
He also served asa delegate to the House NATO Conferences. As a representative of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and on five trips abroad for the US. State Department, Mathais organized and encouraged sports and youth programs in America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Mathais was elected to the National Track and Field HaJJ of Fame in 1974 and was recently elected to the San Francisco Bay Area Hall of Fame. He received the AAU's Sullivan Award as the Outstanding Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1948 and was named as one of America's 10 most outstanding young men by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. Mathais graduated from Stanford in 1953 with a B.A degree in Education.
A sports physiologist measures the heart rate of an athlete Continued on Page 7
From BFS Magazine — May/June 1984. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
