Olympic loss - Historic kayak and slalom venue constructed for Atlanta 1996 burns down

The Ocoee Whitewater Center, which was the venue for canoe and kayaking slalom during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta has been deemed a total loss due to a fire early Tuesday morning.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, firefighters from Polk County, Ga. were able to get the fire under control before it consumed the entire facility. The agency, however, noted the building was a total loss and no one will be allowed to enter the area until the investigation is complete.

“First, we are just so grateful that no one was injured during the fire and thankful to our partners for their assistance in getting the fire under control and investigating the cause,” Mike Wright, Acting Forest Supervisor for the Cherokee National Forest, said. “The Ocoee Whitewater Center was a unique site not just here on the Cherokee National Forest, but across the Forest Service. It is a difficult loss for us.”

The historic lodge which hosted the 1996 Atlanta Games was the third ‘in-river’ Olympic venue. To date it had the greatest water volume, the highest drop, and the steepest slope. More recent Olympic venues, built closer to their host cities, rely entirely on pumped water and use smaller concrete channels designed to minimize the energy cost of running water pumps.

The first two natural in-river Olympic slalom venues were canals built around dams on small rivers in nearby mountains. The first being in Augsburg Eiskanal for the 1972 Munich Games, and Segre Olympic Park for the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Located near Ducktown, Tenn. in the southeastern part of the state, The Ocoee Whitewater is a 500 meter course - twice the length of the Lee Valley course used in the 2012 London Olympics.

At Ocoee, racers had to sprint between the widely separated gates at the top and then maneuver through the closely spaced gates around the ‘humongous’ rapids at the bottom.

As the fire was contained to the facility itself, the river course is still intact yet shutdown to contain smoldering remnants due to the fire. No cause of the fire has been determined at this time.