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KEARNS — The speedskating oval built for the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Canada, is on its last legs.
Ice is an issue at the 38-year-old facility, one of just five covered oval speedskating tracks in North America. Two are in the United States, including the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, a 2002 Winter Games venue that is set to host Olympic competition again in 2034.
"Everything that can be maintained, we've done," the Calgary oval's director, Mark Messer, told The Canadian Press news agency. "The only way to actually fix this is to replace the floor. That's most urgent. If we can't make ice, we're not an ice building."
The news agency reported in a story posted earlier this week by the CBC and other media outlets that the oval's ice-making ability "is nearing end of life" due to an increasing number of leaks among some 400 pipe connections.
"We've got more leaks now, so it's a matter of time before we have a catastrophic failure and can't do ice," said Messer, who has worked at the oval from the start.
Will Utah's Olympic oval be ready for the 2034 Winter Games?
Utah's Olympic oval is in a different situation, the facility's general manager, Todd Porter, told the Deseret News.
"Right now, we're in great shape," Porter said. "We've continued to do capital projects as the facility goes along. We still host international competitions on our oval ice. We have 10 of the 11 world records here."
The oval, originally built with taxpayer dollars that were repaid by 2002 Games organizers, has been maintained over the years with money from the legacy fund established with profits from those Olympics as well as some legislative appropriations.
Porter, a short track skater who worked at the Delta Center during the 2002 Games and has been at the oval for 20 years, said he couldn't speak to whether Calgary has been able to stay on top of replacing equipment that usually has a 10- to 15-year lifespan.
"I just know here we've done a good job. We've already replaced the chiller," Porter said, referring to the refrigeration system that keeps the oval's ice frozen, usually from July to the end of March the following year.
Between now and the 2034 Winter Games, he said he expects to do "just some of that same type of stuff, things that start hitting their life expectancy. A roof by then may need to be done. A new scoreboard. It's more of the upkeep type of stuff that we really need to do."
How much will it cost to save Calgary's Olympic speedskating oval?
The price tag for replacing the Calgary oval's floor, upgrading the ice plant, installing a new running track and making other needed improvements is $60 million in Canadian dollars, according to the news agency, about $41.7 million in U.S. dollars.
But the office of Alberta Sports Minister Joseph Schow said he "has been asking the federal government to recognize the importance of the oval and co-invest in its repairs since he first entered the Tourism and Sport portfolio in June 2023, and we've yet to see any progress."
Messer said it's "remarkable" that Calgary's oval has been around so long.
"We were built as a 25-year building. My main priority now is to keep the building running for another 35," he told the news agency. "We're lobbying hard with our federal and provincial governments because there's nobody corporately that wants to step up and do this."
Like Utah, Calgary continues to host international speedskating competitions, including a World Cup this weekend. Some Canadian speedskaters, however, are raising concerns about having a place to train for the next Winter Games, in Milan-Cortina, Italy, in 2026.
"We're not even sure if the ice system is going to hold up until we leave for the next Games," Olympic champion Ivanie Blondin told the news agency. "It's hanging on by a thread right now. It's uneasy feeling for all the athletes for sure."
Porter said they can train in Utah.
The oval, located next to the Oquirrh Park Fitness Center in Kearns, is often filled with young skaters, but elite athletes from Denmark, New Zealand, Columbia and other parts of the world come there to train. It's also home to U.S. Speedskating.
"If something were to happen to the Calgarians' oval, we'd welcome them in to train here and use our facilities. That could boost the training environment we have here," he said, and possibly bring in enough extra revenue to keep the oval ice in place longer each year.
