Thanks to excellent results in rowing in the fifties, sixties and seventies, Račice venue was built to support the top level sport in the former Czechoslovakia.
When deciding where to built such a big and costly venue, the head of a former sand quarry in Račice and enthusiastic rower, Mr Miloslav Švagrovský, came with an unique idea - take advantage of the mining area for the purpose of building a sport venue.
The project is a master piece of two renowned architects Kuklik and Loudát. Račice is one of the best projected sport area in the Czech Republic and students of architecture stil come to Račice to learn how to create such a project.
The works started in the middle of the seventies in the past century and the opening ceremonial was held in 1986. World Rowing Junior Championship, the first international sport event held in Račice, started a rich history of national and international rowing and canoieng sport events and training camps organized in Račice.
In 1993 was built a boat house situated 250 m from the finish area. Hotel Skif with a capacity of 50 beds was finished in 1995.
The area was improved by building new facilities for races and traings in the finish area. The athletes can now profit from two boat houses that include modern changing rooms, toilets and showers.
An important step was made in 2012 when a new system of organization the Czech sport was settled. Within this new system, 6 sport areas were chosen as the National Olympic Centre and Račice is one of them. The state will regurarly invest in those 6 areas to be able to succesfully candidate for world events.
Taking advantage of becoming the National Olympic Centre, Račice prepared a large architectural study to complete the contruction of the area. Realization of this exacting task would give the Sportcentre an ideal equipment and facilities for training and racing of athletes of all performace levels. It is also planned to open the area more to public.
Learn more about the project here (available only in Czech language).
