With the 2022 Winter Olympics coming up, The Ubyssey decided to look back at the role UBC’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre has played in Olympics past. The winter sports facility has hosted some of the biggest names in hockey, figure skating and more.
2009: Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre opens
After a facility refurbishment and construction of a new stadium arena, the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre was officially opened on August 21, 2009. The arena hosts the UBC Thunderbirds’ hockey matches and it is also used as a practice rink for the Vancouver Canucks.
Kavie Toor, managing director at UBC Athletics and Recreation, said the decision to upgrade the facility was based on two factors. First, the aging rink facility, which originally opened in 1953, was at the end of its lifecycle. Second, the Vancouver Olympic Committee allowed the new arena to open as an Olympic host venue.
“Legacy was the key driving force for us,” Toor said regarding the upgrade.
2010: Olympic and Paralympic Games
During the 2010 Olympic games, the arena hosted several men’s and women’s ice hockey matches. Canada won two landslide victories in the venue — the women’s 13–1 match against Sweden and 10–1 match against Switzerland.
The arena also held all sledge hockey matches for the Paralympic Games.
“It was cool seeing a very local arena being used on a much bigger stage and it also helped [introduce me to] a sport,” recalled Abby Holmes, a third-year applied animal biology student, attending the games.
2012-2015: Ice rink turned tennis arena
Four times between 2012 and 2015, the centre was unusually used as a summer sport venue for Davis Cup matches — an international men’s tennis team event. Team Canada’s top result at the Thunderbird Centre was a quarterfinal win against Italy in 2013, allowing them to advance to the semifinals in Serbia.
2018: Figure skating surrounding the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics
2018 was a big year for figure skating at UBC.
Just before the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics, the centre hosted the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. Several skaters who medalled at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics were named to Team Canada after this competition. Team Canada also went on to win gold in the figure skating team event. Notably, this was Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s — the most decorated Olympic figure skating ice dancers of all time — last National Championships.
Later that year, the Grand Prix Final took, a major international figure skating competition was also held at the centre.
2021: Figure skating pre-Beijing 2022 Olympics
In October 2021, the centre hosted Skate Canada International, a Grand Prix Figure Skating event. Many Canadians who competed at this event have since been named to the Beijing 2022 Olympic team. Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are among two of them, and may have the best chance of Team Canada’s figure skaters to medal this Olympics.
Maddie Nikola, a third-year history major who attended Skate Canada, said seeing the skaters on campus was surreal.
“It was kind of strange. The fact that it was so close … There’s people who came from all over to come see it,” said Nikola
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