A Brief History of the 7-Eleven USOPC Velodrome
by Mark Tyson

Prior to the 1984 Olympic Games, the then USOC, signed a venue agreement with Southland,

Corp of Dallas, Texas to build the velodrome for the 1984 Games in LA. Southland was the

parent company of 7-Eleven and branded the velodrome with 7-Eleven. It was decided that it

would be very important to build an exact replica of the LA track at the Colorado Springs

Olympic Training Center for training purposes.

Completed in the early spring of 1983, the Colorado Springs track proved to be perhaps the

fastest velodrome in the world. With the unprecedented results obtained by the ’84 US Track

Cycling Team, the Olympic Committee chose to expand the facilities and bid for the 1986 World

Cycling Championships. In those days, the World Championships included the track as well as

the road competition, so Colorado Springs was treated to not only record setting performances

on the track, but the spectacle of the professional, amateur and women’s road events at the US

Air Force Academy.

In the years since, the velodrome has played host to the Paralympic World Championships, the

Junior World Championships, World Cups, National Sports Festivals, Elite, Juniors and Masters

National Championships and a host of national and international events. In addition, national

teams from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia,

Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and many others have trained at the facility.

In the early 2000s, the UCI (world governing body) decided to move the Track Cycling to

become an indoor winter sport and required covered 250 meter tracks. This posed a problem

given the length of the USOPC velodrome at 333.3 meters and the fact that it was an open air

facility.

In 2013, the USOPC with help from USA Cycling decided to put the track under an air supported

structure for year around training. In the year 2020, the Covid pandemic disrupted all usage of

the velodrome for 2 years. In 2022, the USOPC began the process of restoring public access.

In 2024, a joint effort from the USOPC and USA Cycling traditional and robust programming resumed

and the Colorado Springs Velodrome was born!