Lee Valley White Water Centre
Lee Valley White Water Centre is a white-water slalom centre in the Middle Lea Valley, in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. It was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
On 9 December 2010, the Princess Royal officially opened the venue which is owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited under its "Better" brand. The £31 million project to construct the centre finished on schedule and was the first newly constructed Olympic venue to be completed.
The Olympic canoe slalom competition was held from 29 July through 2 August 2012. The venue also hosted the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.
Venue
The venue is located at Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, adjacent to the River Lee, the county border with Essex.The site is just outside the northern boundary of Greater London and north-west of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. It is in the heart of River Lee Country Park which is part of the, long Lee Valley Park. The venue opened in late 2010 offering canoeing and rafting activities to the public ahead of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
The venue has a purpose-built slalom course for the Olympic white-water canoe events. The main competition channel is an international- and Olympic-standard 300-metre canoe and kayak slalom course. It and the shorter warm-up course empty into the warm-up and cool-down lake.
The white water is created by a system of pumps which lift water into the two start pools. All of the water contained in the system is slightly chlorinated in order to retain water quality. During the Games, temporary seating was installed around the venue for 12,000 spectators.
The 300-metre competition course has a drop of 5.5 metres, for an average slope of 1.8% and a pump-powered streamflow of. The intermediate/warm-up course is 160 metres long with a drop of 1.6 metres and flow of 10.5 cubic metres per second. A 10,000-square-metre lake, filled with groundwater, supplies the water for the pumps. Lee Valley Regional Park Authority hope to bring in up to £45,000 per day from visitors to offset the energy cost of pumping the water.
The course is sited within a new landscaped parkland setting, including path and bridge networks to enable spectators to have access and view the events. A new facility building houses reception, café, changing rooms, shop, offices, spectator viewing, equipment storage and water pump and filtration facilities.
Pre-Games use
The venue was officially opened by the Princess Royal on 9 December 2010. It is owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and was originally managed by them as well, but since April 1, 2022, is now managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited under its "Better" brand. The £31 million project to construct the centre finished on schedule and was the first newly constructed Olympic venue to be completed.Lee Valley White Water Centre was the only brand new London 2012 venue available for public use before the Games. On 8 September 2012 it became the first London 2012 venue to reopen to the public. The centre is intended to provide canoeing and rafting activities for users of all abilities who will be able to take advantage of the Olympic and intermediate course. The venue is owned, funded and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority; it will join the other London 2012 venues – the Velopark, Hockey Centre and Tennis centre at Eton Manor – that the Park Authority will also own, fund and manage in legacy.
Gate maps for 2012 Olympics
Two gate sets were used for the Olympic Games, one for the first two days and another for the last three days. Each gate set had six upstream gates, but gate #12 of the first set was a flush gate with the second pole directly downstream of the first. Paddlers entered gate #12 from the left wall side and exited into the main current. Gate #18 of the second set was a downstream flush gate, with entrance from the flow and exit into the eddy. A 90-degree right turn direct from #18 to #19 was faster than the 270-degree eddy spin used by many contenders. All the gates were double-pole. There was no use of single-pole gates.Olympic Results.
Post-Games use
The venue opened again to the public after the Games as part of the Olympic Legacy Works. Spectator seating was removed and the venue returned to providing a leisure attraction for canoeing and white-water rafting and a competition venue for elite events, to be managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. In April 2011 it was confirmed that the centre would host the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.A £6.3 million redevelopment project was completed in February 2014 leading to the creation of new visitor facilities and new offices and training base for the GB Canoe Slalom team.