Guided Tour of the 2017 Roller Games Facilities in Nanjing, China (3/3)

End of the Tour

Downhill Skating and Inline Alpine: Jubaoshan Park

It is a nature park of 150 ha, north of Nanjing. The Alpine competition will take place on a 400 m road in the park, and the downhill competition, on a short (700 m) but technical route.

Artistic Skating: Wutaishan Gymnasium

This Gymnasium was built in 1975, and is used by the local basketball team. With a 10.000-seat capacity, the hall will host the whole competition of Artistic Skating.
Located in the heart of the city, the main hall has two giant screens, and is completed by a reception room and an adjacent room for warm-ups.

Roller Derby

It will be the first time that the explosive sport of Roller Derby will be featured at a FIRS competition, giving athletes and fans exposure to the recently introduced International Rules. The Roller Derby games will be held at the Youth Olympic Sports Park, more specifically at the sheltered space between the Stadium and the Arena. Roller Derby will be using this space from September 2nd to the 4th, a few days before Freestyle organizes their World Championships in the same area. Four countries have confirmed their participation in the first-ever Roller Derby tournament sanctioned by FIRS, Spain representing Europe, Australia representing Oceania, Japan representing Asia and the USA representing America. The event will only feature female teams. 

A First Conclusion Following the Visit of the Facilities

Pre-Existing Facilities for the Most Part

The facilities are already existing. Little investment for facilities is planned, except for the skateboard/aggressive area, and for the adding of temporary seats. The city already has the facilities built, for the most part, for the Youth Olympics of 2014, and, for the hockey part, the city is being delivered new facilities.
Beyond that, the organization of the Roller Games has to take up important challenges, in terms of organization, coordination and communication. Let’s hope that Nanjing manages to use the Youth Olympics experience to address the Roller Games with the same professionalism.

A Certain Distance for Some Athletes and Spectators

We may regret that some facilities are quite remote from the city center. It will irremediably be a challenge to fill up the seats during the events. Moreover, the city being vast, traveling and commutation times are often long, with often more than half an hour separating the sites, according to traffic situations.
Last but not least, some facilities or circuits had been defined only a few weeks before our tour… while the Roller Games are scheduled in less than 6 months, now.

Some Communication Weaknesses

A lack of communication and information from the organization can be felt. The Online-Skating.com team tries to palliate at a humble level with their articles! Let’s also regret that there is still no Internet Website online for an event of such a scale!

However, it is undeniable that the Roller Games, gathering all disciplines of skating, will be a big Skating festival celebrating skating in all its forms and disciplines, for two weeks this autumn.

Useful Links

Guided Tour of the 2017 Roller Games Facilities in Nanjing, China (1/3)

Guided Tour of the 2017 Roller Games Facilities in Nanjing, China (2/3)