Pau-Pyrénées Whitewater Stadium
Encyclopedia
Pau-Pyrénées Whitewater Stadium is the home training facility for the French national canoe slalom team. It was first used to train the French team for the 2008 Summer Olympics
in Beijing
. It 2009, it was the first of three venues used in the canoe slalom World Cup. It is also a whitewater park for recreational use by the general public.
, and the presence in Pau of two Olympic medalists, Tony Estanguet
and his older brother Patrice
, helped to make Pau the site of this new 11.7 million € facility.
It is located beside a small dam upstream from town, where it uses diverted river water supplemented by pumped recirculation when the river's streamflow is low. The artificial channels are lined with boulders embedded in concrete, and the visible instream flow diverters are natural rocks, giving the course a natural appearance, similar to that of the nearby Parc Olímpic del Segre
on the Spanish side of the mountains. The moveable plastic bollards common to many such courses are not used here.
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. It 2009, it was the first of three venues used in the canoe slalom World Cup. It is also a whitewater park for recreational use by the general public.
History and Design
The town of Pau has long been a center of activity for French canoe slalom. The natural rapids in the center of town are still equipped with hanging slalom gates. But the sport is increasingly conducted on artificial whitewaterArtificial whitewater
An artificial whitewater course is a site for whitewater canoeing, whitewater kayaking, whitewater racing, whitewater rafting, playboating and slalom canoeing with artificially generated rapids.-Flow diversion:...
, and the presence in Pau of two Olympic medalists, Tony Estanguet
Tony Estanguet
Tony Estanguet is a French slalom canoeist. He has competed since the late 1990s.-Career:Tony is the son of Henri Estanguet, himself a canoeist who won medals at the World Championships in the 1970s...
and his older brother Patrice
Patrice Estanguet
Patrice Estanguet is a French slalom canoer. He is the elder brother of Tony Estanguet.-Career:Estanguet competed from the late 1990s to the mid 2000s...
, helped to make Pau the site of this new 11.7 million € facility.
It is located beside a small dam upstream from town, where it uses diverted river water supplemented by pumped recirculation when the river's streamflow is low. The artificial channels are lined with boulders embedded in concrete, and the visible instream flow diverters are natural rocks, giving the course a natural appearance, similar to that of the nearby Parc Olímpic del Segre
Parc Olímpic del Segre
Parc Olímpic del Segre is a canoeing and kayaking facility in La Seu d'Urgell, Catalonia, Spain, built in 1990 for use during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona....
on the Spanish side of the mountains. The moveable plastic bollards common to many such courses are not used here.