OLYMPICS 2012:UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Dublin (UCD) has formally begun the bidding process of enticing foreign teams into using Irish sporting facilities ahead of the London Olympics in 2012. Although still over two years off – or 834 days, to be exact – the majority of competing nations are now starting to look at training bases ahead of the games, and UCD are targeting such nations with the launch of their Pre-Olympic Training Campus.

Several Irish Olympians from the past attended the launch at the O’Reilly Hall yesterday evening, including medallists Ronnie Delany, John Treacy and Michael Carruth – and also Jimmy Reardon, who competed for Ireland in the 400 metres when the Olympics were last staged in London, back in 1948. Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president Pat Hickey was also present and welcomed the venture as a positive move in terms of maximising Ireland’s proximity to London.

“UCD has always been at the forefront of promoting sport, whether through the provision of world class facilities or high achievement in sport,” said Hickey. “I would certainly encourage other nations to consider basing their Olympic and Paralympic 2012 preparations at UCD.”

UCD director of sport Brian Mullins outlined the aims and motivations of the Pre-Olympic Training Campus, in that the university is not necessarily trying to attract the major nations such as the USA or Russia, but rather smaller nations, or certain teams within those nations.

“We would have spoken about this internally as soon as London was awarded the games, a couple of years ago,” explained Mullins. “The prospect was there for us to link up with various Olympic delegations, in terms of those basing themselves close to London, but being a bit away from it as well. What we can offer the athletes is a place to complete the preparations in a calm environment, away from the hustle and bustle of London, which is still only an hour’s flight away.”

The Pre-Olympic Training Campus is focused around UCD’s Sports Zone, at the Clonskeagh end of the campus, where there is already a range of facilities – allowing UCD to cater for practically every Olympic sport, with the main exception of rowing. A 50-metre pool will be completed next summer, and the other main attraction is the residential facilities, which can cater for 3,500.

“We can offer more or less anything and everything,” added Mullins. “We tick all the boxes in terms of appropriate accommodation, the green field campus, and fairly extensive sporting facilities, from pitches to indoor halls to the running track. We’ll also have our new 50-metre swimming pool, to be completed next summer.

“We believe these are the criteria that Olympic managers are looking for when it comes to completing their preparations. We have already circulated the UCD Training Campus brochure to over 200 national Olympic committees, under the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and we’ve got some feedback already from a number of counties, indicating that they are going to explore the possibilities of using Dublin.”

It may be that certain nations will base only certain sports in UCD: “Countries very often split their delegation, and would not have all their competitors in the one place. If two soccer teams were based here, for example, that would be 40 athletes. Or India might base themselves here to use our hockey stadium and might only have a few other athletes as well.”

The University of Limerick has also put together a similar pre-training plan, and between them the two universities will inevitably attract the interest of several Olympic nations – the one guarantee being they will at least experience similar weather conditions to London.