Individuals who have their sights set on the Olympics begin training at a young age. Some, however, may set this goal a little later in life but the training for the actual games is the same for everyone. Their training becomes the main focus in their lives. In fact, most individuals who are training for the Olympics do little more than train, putting in eight hours or more of training per day. This kind of intense schedule leaves little time for other things, especially work.
Because of the fact that it takes money to live and it takes time to train, most individuals get sponsorships from corporate, private, or team owners to fund their training efforts. To reach their goals most athletes will move into an Olympic training facility to better focus on their goals and get the best training possible.
The United States is home to three Olympic training facilities run by the United States Olympic Committee. These training facilities can be found in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Lake Placid, New York; and Chula Vista, California. Each training facility offers different training opportunities for future Olympians. The training center in Colorado offers training in swimming, water polo, boxing, shooting, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, tennis, and more. Chula Vista training center offers training in track and field, tennis, soccer, rowing, field hockey, cycling, kayak and canoe, archery, and softball.
If you are training for winter sports such as the biathlon, bobsled, figure skating, ice hockey, luge, speed skating, and skiing, training is done at the training center in New York. In addition to winter sports training some of the other sports that are trained in that facility include boxing, canoe and kayak, rowing, judo, synchronized swimming, team handball, taekwondo, water polo, and wrestling.
In addition to the three training centers, in Michigan there is an Olympic Education Center as well as two other official training sites in California and Alabama. More than 43 countries have sent over athletes and coaches who have participated in training programs for over 30 different sports at the Olympic Education Center.