The Real Estate Cost of Building a Winter Olympian

[1]

Behind every Winter Olympian stands not only years of training, but also hundreds of millions of dollars in dedicated infrastructure investment. Unlike many summer sports, winter disciplines depend on geographically fixed and capital-intensive facilities: sliding tracks carved into mountainsides, refrigerated 400-meter ice ovals, ski jumping complexes engineered for aerodynamic precision, and Nordic trail systems spanning hundreds of acres. [2] These facilities are not incidental: for sports like luge, bobsled, skeleton, long-track speed skating, and ski jumping, the facility is the sport, because athletes cannot train meaningfully without the venue. [3] And because such venues exist in relatively few places, where they are located affects who gets consistent access and who advances into elite pipelines. [4]

The Capital Intensity of Winter Sport Infrastructure

Mega-event infrastructure is widely documented as costly and prone to overruns, and Olympic venues are frequently cited as a leading example in the megaproject literature. [5] Illustratively, a Vancouver City Council financial report estimated that the City of Vancouver alone expended $524 million in Games-related capital infrastructure (separate from broader regional and national spending) prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics. [6]

Sliding tracks, in particular, are among the most expensive single-sport facilities because they require reinforced concrete channels, embedded refrigeration piping, complex earthworks, and precision engineering. [7] In fact, multiple Olympic sliding venues have construction costs above $100 million, including PyeongChang, South Korea’s Alpensia Sliding Centre at about $114.5 million USD (reported as 122.8 billion KRW). [8]

Speed skating ovals also require substantial capital outlays. [9] One prominent example is the Richmond Olympic Oval in Richmond, British Columbia, reported at $178 million CAD and approximately 33,750 square meters of indoor space — designed with a substantial post-Games multi-sport reconfiguration plan in mind. [10]

Even ski jumping and multi-discipline training parks require major land commitments and fixed assets. [11] The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation describes the Utah Olympic Park as a nearly 400-acre venue that includes one of only four sliding tracks in North America and six Nordic ski jumps, among other legacy and training uses. [12] Because these sites are terrain-dependent and engineered for safety, they typically require large footprints for grading, safety zones, and support infrastructure beyond the large competition surface itself. [13]

Operating Costs and Revenue Realities

Capital expenditures tell only part of the story, because winter venues often face high operating and maintenance burdens long after the event cycle ends. [14] Post-Olympic reporting around PyeongChang, for example, included estimates that the sliding center alone would require about 1 billion KRW (or approximately $691,999 USD in today’s figures) per year to operate (reported as an expected annual cost), highlighting how refrigeration and specialized staffing create continuing expenses. [15]

Operators often try to offset these costs with tourism and public programming. [16] For example, the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia advertises paid public experiences (including passenger bobsleigh and public skeleton) and states that proceeds support sport development and athletes. [17] Public authorities also justify continued investment by pointing to broader economic impacts. [18] New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has publicized an economic impact analysis reporting $341.8 million in annual economic impact attributable to the Lake Placid winter sports infrastructure and discussing how state investment and venue operations contribute to jobs and tax revenue. [19]

Geographic Proximity and the “Birthplace Effect”

With winter sport infrastructure being so scarce, geography matters. Sports development research on the “birthplace effect” finds that elite athletes are disproportionately produced from particular regions and structured participation environments, suggesting that access to development systems shapes elite outcomes. [20] In winter sports, this dynamic is amplified because training venues such as sliding tracks and ski jumps are rare and geographically fixed.

A 2026 Washington Post analysis of more than 2,500 training facilities associated with U.S. Winter Olympic sports illustrates this point. [22] The United States has only two full sliding tracks — in Park City, Utah, and Lake Placid, New York — meaning most Americans live far from the facilities required for luge, bobsled, and skeleton. [23] Unsurprisingly, athlete production mirrors that geography.

New York has produced the most U.S. Winter Olympians overall, followed by Minnesota and Massachusetts. [24] When population is considered, however, Vermont leads the nation by far, with 51 Winter Olympians despite a population of roughly 640,000 — the highest per capita production rate in the country. [25] Other cold-weather states, including Alaska and New Hampshire, also rank near the top per capita. [26]

Facility concentration is also closely tied to sport-specific dominance. Minnesotans account for nearly half of U.S. Olympic curling berths (a statistic the Post connects to the concentration of curling clubs in Wisconsin and Minnesota compared to the rest of the country), while New Yorkers account for roughly 40 percent of Olympic bobsled berths — a figure tied directly to the presence of one of the country’s only sliding tracks in Lake Placid. [27] Additionally, it is worth noting that Vermont — the leading winter Olympian producing state in the U.S. — is less than two hours by car from Lake Placid. [28] Meanwhile, large portions of the Southeast lack meaningful access to alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, or sliding facilities at all. [29]

Even indoor sports reveal the role of infrastructure distribution. Figure skating clubs are located within an hour’s drive of roughly 90 percent of U.S. towns with populations over 50,000, and youth hockey programs are within that range for more than 80 percent of such towns. [30] More specialized disciplines such as ski jumping, by contrast, exist in fewer than two dozen locations nationwide. [31]

Taken together, this data provides further empirical support for the “birthplace effect”: when facilities are rare and capital-intensive, proximity meaningfully shapes who enters and advances within elite winter sport pipelines.

Real Estate as a Gatekeeper

Winter sport participation can carry high barriers — specialized equipment, lift tickets, ice time, and travel — so proximity to training venues can reduce friction costs and increase repetitions. [32] But if venues rely heavily on premium pricing, access can narrow, and the governance model (public authority, nonprofit legacy operator, or private operator) may shape whether community access expands or contracts. [33] Land-use and environmental permitting issues also shape feasibility for these projects, particularly where large footprints, grading, snowmaking, and energy-intensive refrigeration are involved.

Estimating the Real Estate Cost Per Olympian

A basic way to translate real estate investment into an “athlete development” frame is to annualize capital costs using standard finance methods (e.g., an annuity/capital recovery approach), then compare that annualized cost — plus O&M — to the amount of elite athlete training supported. [34] For example, using a common annuity framework, a large facility’s annualized capital cost can remain substantial even before operating expenses are added. [35] This is one reason post-Games literature not only struggles to place a definitive value on the investment required to “build a Winter Olympian,” but also frequently debates whether specialized Olympic venues become long-term community assets or long-term fiscal burdens. [36]

The Cost of Gold

The making of a Winter Olympian is not merely a story of talent and perseverance. It is a story of land acquisition, capital budgeting, public subsidy, zoning approvals, and long-term facility maintenance. From Lake Placid to Park City, elite winter athletes emerge from places where governments and institutions have made sustained, place-based investments.

In this sense, Olympic medals can be read as the visible returns on invisible real estate portfolios. And as climate pressures and public finance scrutiny intensify, the legal and economic frameworks governing these specialized properties will increasingly shape who stands on the podium.

EASTON WARNER (Editor-in-Chief) is a 2L at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. In addition to being the Editor-in-Chief of the Real Estate Law Society Blog, Easton is a member of the Moot Court Board. Following law school, Easton plans to pursue a career in Litigation.

Footnotes

[1] Photo by Hert Niks on Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/snow-covered-bridge-during-daytime-dtlZP4-EBIg.

[2] See Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, About, https://utaholympiclegacy.org/about/.

[3] See Whistler Sliding Center, Public Sliding & Programs, https://www.whistlerslidingcentre.com/public-sliding/spectating-sightseeing.

[4] See Jean Côté et al., When “Where” Is More Important Than “When”: Birthplace and Birthdate Effects on the Achievement of Sporting Expertise, 24 J. Sports Sci. 1065 (2006), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6681495_When_where_is_more_important_than_when_Birthplace_and_birthdate_effects_on_the_achievement_of_sporting_expertise.

[5] Bent Flyvbjerg, Allison Stewart & Alexander Budzier, The Oxford Olympics Study 2016: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games, 32 Oxford Rev. Econ. Pol’y 232 (2016), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305307721_The_Oxford_Olympics_Study_2016_Cost_and_Cost_Overrun_at_the_Games.

[6] City of Vancouver, British Colombia, 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games – Cost Estimates 2–3 (Mar. 31, 2010).

[7] See Whistler Sliding Center, Public Sliding & Programs, https://www.whistlerslidingcentre.com/public-sliding/spectating-sightseeing; Cardinal Concrete, Project Profile: Whistler Sliding Centre, https://cardinalconcrete.ca/558-2/.

[8] Infobae, The Groundbreaking Ceremony of the Olympic Sliding Center for the Success of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018 (July 21, 2021), https://www.infobae.com/aroundtherings/articles/2021/07/12/the-groundbreaking-ceremony-of-the-olympic-sliding-center-for-the-success-of-the-pyeongchang-winter-olympics-2018/.

[9] BRING ON THE MEDALS!, Building, https://building.ca/feature/bring-on-the-medals/.

[10] Id.

[11] See Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, About, https://utaholympiclegacy.org/about/.

[12] Id.

[13] See Utah Olympic Legacy Found., Mountain Expansion, https://utaholympiclegacy.org/mountain-expansion/.

[14] See Future of Olympic Sliding Center Still Uncertain, Korea Times (February 18, 2018), https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/sports/20180218/future-of-olympic-sliding-center-still-uncertain.

[15] Id.

[16] See Whistler Sliding Center, Public Sliding & Programs, https://www.whistlerslidingcentre.com/public-sliding/spectating-sightseeing.

[17] Id.

[18] See Report: $341.8 Million Annual Economic Impact, N.Y. Olympic Reg’l Dev. Auth. (June 16, 2023), https://orda.org/2023/06/16/economic-impact-report-2023/.

[19] Id.

[20] See Jean Côté et al., When “Where” Is More Important Than “When”: Birthplace and Birthdate Effects on the Achievement of Sporting Expertise, 24 J. Sports Sci. 1065 (2006), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6681495_When_where_is_more_important_than_when_Birthplace_and_birthdate_effects_on_the_achievement_of_sporting_expertise.

[21] Emily Giambalvo, Dylan Moriarty & Kati Perry, Explore Where Winter Olympic Sports Are Most Accessible Across the U.S., Wash. Post (Feb. 9, 2026), https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/interactive/2026/winter-olympic-sports-city-access/.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] Id.

[27] Id.

[28] Lake Placid, Traveling to Lake Placid, https://www.lakeplacid.com/explore/getting-here.

[29] Emily Giambalvo, Dylan Moriarty & Kati Perry, Explore Where Winter Olympic Sports Are Most Accessible Across the U.S., Wash. Post (Feb. 9, 2026), https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/interactive/2026/winter-olympic-sports-city-access/.

[30] Id.

[31] Id.

[32] See Jean Côté et al., When “Where” Is More Important Than “When”: Birthplace and Birthdate Effects on the Achievement of Sporting Expertise, 24 J. Sports Sci. 1065 (2006), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6681495_When_where_is_more_important_than_when_Birthplace_and_birthdate_effects_on_the_achievement_of_sporting_expertise.

[33] See Report: $341.8 Million Annual Economic Impact, N.Y. Olympic Reg’l Dev. Auth. (June 16, 2023), https://orda.org/2023/06/16/economic-impact-report-2023/; Whistler Sliding Ctr., Public Sliding & Programs, https://www.whistlerslidingcentre.com/public-sliding/spectating-sightseeing.

[34] Investopedia, Present Value of an Annuity: Definition, Formula, and Example, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/present-value-annuity.asp.

[35] Id.

[36] Bent Flyvbjerg, Allison Stewart & Alexander Budzier, The Oxford Olympics Study 2016: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games, 32 Oxford Rev. Econ. Pol’y 232 (2016), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305307721_The_Oxford_Olympics_Study_2016_Cost_and_Cost_Overrun_at_the_Games.