While on vacation in Colorado, my wife and I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the United States Olympic Complex (USOC) located in Colorado Springs. The USOC in Colorado Springs is the headquarters for the U.S. Olympic Committee administration and the Olympic Training Center programs (TeamUSA.org).

The USOC is the first of three Olympic training centers in the United States. The complex is extremely nice and offers free admission and tours, making it a must-see attraction in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, my wife arrived at the training complex a little late in the afternoon and missed the last free tour. We ended up walking around the facility, checking out the posters, statutes, gift shop, etc. and ended up catching up with the tour group.

We decided to join in with the group even though we had missed a good bit of the tour. Despite being late, I’m very glad we joined the group. Otherwise, we would not have been able to enter portion of the facilities where the athletes were training. We ended up seeing several athletes who are participating in the Beijing Olympics. We saw some of the girls on the trampoline team, the women’s volleyball team (not beach), weightlifters, a boxer, a cyclist, and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting. All of the athletes were very nice and would actually stop and say something if the tour guide stopped them as they walked by.

One interesting fact I learned is that the athletes live at the complex for an average of 3-5 years. Hilton Hotels actually came in one year and asked the athletes what would make there stay better and implemented many of those changes for them. As you can imagine, they have a high rated cafeteria that caters to the US Olympic team’s special dietary requirement.

All-in-all I had a really great time touring the U.S. Olympic Complex and was half-tempted to return the next day to catch the full tour. I do regret not buying a t-shirt or something from the gift shop. I’ve embedded a short slideshow that displays a small selection of photos we took during our visit.

You’ll see a picture of some swimmers in the slideshow above. Although they have a giant indoor pool, the Olympic swimmers do not actually train in Colorado Springs so there is no sense looking for Michael Phelps in the picture.