Olympic Valley North Tahoe Picture: Adam Fischer
Challenge Olympic in Palisades Tahoe started with a easy query from a World Cup athlete: “The place’s your fitness center?” The reply—a small setup within the outdated cantina constructing—impressed Adam Fischer’s mission to match Palisades’ world-class terrain with equally high-caliber infrastructure for coaching and residing.
That dialog launched a far-reaching, community-centered growth that now consists of deed-restricted workforce housing, a public health heart, a house for Creekside Constitution College, a possible highschool facility, and restricted business area for native companies. With momentum constructing and assist from throughout the area, Fischer and his collaborators consider Challenge Olympic might turn into a nationwide mannequin for neighborhood growth in ski cities
A Shared Imaginative and prescient from the Begin
Fischer isn’t constructing this undertaking alone. Travis Ganong was amongst his earliest supporters, a two-time World Cup downhill winner, not too long ago retired U.S. Ski Group athlete, and a proud native of Tahoe. Ganong rapidly noticed the undertaking’s potential and joined Fischer to co-host neighborhood fireplace chats, converse with potential donors, and assist information the imaginative and prescient ahead.
“Rising up in Tahoe, we had a tremendous mountain to coach on, however off the hill we had no fitness center or academic facility to foster the opposite components of being a student-athlete,” Ganong stated. “I nonetheless made it to the world stage, however many others slid by means of the cracks.”
He believes this undertaking can shut that hole. “My imaginative and prescient is to enrich the world-class mountain with a community-owned and operated growth that addresses a number of wants—coaching, schooling, housing and connection,” he stated.
Broad Help From Stakeholders
Challenge Olympic has already earned assist from native residents, companies, and establishments—together with Creekside Constitution College, Palisades Tahoe, and regional environmental teams. “We’ve had nothing however assist to this point,” Ganong stated. “Everybody sees this as a win-win.”
Fischer and the workforce proactively met with Sierra Watch, the Mountain Space Preservation Basis, and Buddies of Olympic Valley—three organizations typically vital of recent growth within the Tahoe Basin. Their objective was to make sure early transparency and collaboration. “We needed to keep away from the litigation that derails so many Tahoe tasks,” Ganong stated.
Placer County Supervisor Cindy Gustafson has supplied steering and helped the workforce join with key grant companies and authorities contacts. Palisades Tahoe management helps the imaginative and prescient and sees a possibility to collaborate with Challenge Olympic. “They’re not driving it, however they acknowledge how this improves high quality of life within the valley,” Fischer stated.
Funding Silos and Objective-Pushed Help
Challenge Olympic addresses three interconnected areas of want—every with its personal set of anticipated donors:
Deed-Restricted Workforce Housing: Lease-restricted models for coaches, lecturers, ski patrollers, and different native employees will doubtless draw assist from neighborhood members and organizations targeted on long-term financial stability.
Schooling and College Entry: The undertaking consists of plans to supply a everlasting residence for Creekside Constitution College and doubtlessly broaden to incorporate highschool grades. “We lose too many children after eighth grade,” Ganong stated. “This undertaking offers them an opportunity to remain rooted right here, proceed their schooling, and keep in sport.”
Athlete Coaching and Neighborhood Wellness: The proposed health and efficiency heart—open to each athletes and the general public—will enchantment to ski racing households, regional sports activities foundations, and even outdoors donors occupied with sports activities and human efficiency innovation. “That is about creating area for each neighborhood and efficiency,” Ganong stated.
To offer monetary stability and protect the valley’s small-business id, the undertaking consists of restricted business area. Fischer plans to retain present tenants—Olympic Boot Works, Arcade Belts, and the publish workplace—as long-term occupants. “It’s not a business growth within the conventional sense,” Fischer stated. “However we would like a number of steady, community-minded tenants whose rents assist the muse and preserve providers native.”
Anchored within the Valley
The 5.22-acre parcel sits on the entrance to Palisades Tahoe and carries deep significance. Fischer secured the land by means of a proper buy and sale settlement with the Poulsen Household Belief.
The Poulsen household, led by Wayne Poulsen, co-founded the ski space that may turn into Palisades Tahoe. “We’re constructing on legacy right here,” Fischer stated. “This undertaking honors what the Poulsens created whereas constructing for the long run.”
Zoning laws allow growth with out variances, and Fischer’s workforce limits density by alternative. “You could possibly construct a 600,000-square-foot lodge right here,” he stated. “As a substitute, we’re proposing one thing nearer to 100,000–120,000 sq. ft, no taller than three tales. We would like it to suit the atmosphere.”
Neighborhood design charrettes will form the ultimate plan as soon as the undertaking hits its first fundraising milestone: $200,000. Grassroots donors have already contributed greater than $42,000—together with Ganong, who made a private contribution by means of his work with the Administrators Cup Ski Invitational.
Housing for These Who Maintain the Valley Operating
The undertaking helps the individuals who preserve the neighborhood operating—ski coaches, lecturers, firefighters, EMTs, ski patrol workers, and others working in and round Olympic Valley. It gives rent-restricted models, not on the market, starting from studios to 3 bedrooms.
“This isn’t luxurious housing,” Fischer stated. “It’s steady, inexpensive, and employment-linked. That’s who that is for.”
Rents will probably be primarily based on Placer County’s space median earnings (AMI) calculations. A community-based basis will oversee and handle the undertaking, reinvesting all internet proceeds into constructing upkeep, academic applications, scholarships, and future neighborhood initiatives.
A Place to Prepare—and Collect
The coaching and efficiency heart is designed to fulfill each athletic and neighborhood wants. Ganong sees it as greater than a fitness center. “It’s a 3rd area,” he stated. “Past residence and work, this will probably be someplace folks join—coaching facet by facet, grabbing a smoothie, seeing one another usually.”
Plans embrace area for public coaching, high-performance use, and even future analysis partnerships targeted on sports activities science, restoration and innovation.
“We have now a high-performance tradition in Tahoe,” stated Ron Kipp, director of workforce efficiency for Group Palisades Tahoe. “Each facet of coaching is scrutinized and seen as important to be on the prime of the game. Having the attributes of a efficiency heart is a necessity if athletes are to achieve and keep world-class outcomes. This undertaking will yield superb dividends for the neighborhood and nation.”
A Everlasting House for Schooling
Solely two public colleges in the US companion with a gold-level ski membership, and Creekside stands as one in every of them.
“This might fully change the sport for native student-athletes,” Ganong stated. “And it offers the broader neighborhood entry to higher schooling with out leaving the valley.”
Allison Mollin, a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Group athlete and Creekside alum, emphasised the college’s lasting impression: “Whereas I used to be an eighth grade pupil at Creekside on the lookout for highschool choices, I bear in mind wishing that Creekside continued on into highschool. Each highschool I visited I in comparison with my expertise at Creekside. Selecting to attend center faculty by means of Creekside was the perfect resolution my dad and mom ever made, not just for my athletic and educational careers, however for my experiences as an individual.”
Jeff Kraunz, govt director of Creekside, underscored the significance of sustaining educational alternatives alongside elite athletics. “To succeed at an elite stage, we should prioritize the vital considering and mind growth in a supportive atmosphere. So many student-athletes are pressured to sacrifice both a high-quality schooling or forgo entry to world-class occasions. With a everlasting residence, we’d be capable of proceed an schooling by means of highschool that may permit for college students to thrive on the highest stage with out sacrificing neighborhood, id or alternative.”
Eric Garayoa, director of groups at Group Palisades Tahoe, added: “As one in every of solely two U.S. Ski & Snowboard high-performance facilities and gold-certified golf equipment nationwide partnering with public colleges, we’re dedicated to an ordinary which offers entry and excellence to all neighborhood members—the place youth athletes might pursue the very best of targets with out leaving their residence mountain or faculty neighborhood.”
A Sustainable, Reinvesting Mannequin
A nonprofit basis will direct all internet proceeds from rental and retail leases by means of an endowment construction. This ensures continued reinvestment locally and avoids dependency on outdoors operators.
“This isn’t a one-and-done construct,” Fischer stated. “That is meant to maintain itself and feed future alternatives.”
What They Need the Ski World to Know
On the finish of the interview, Fischer was clear about what he hopes the ski racing world understands:
“We have now to do that now. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime alternative, and if we don’t act, we threat dropping the possibility to form the way forward for this valley.”
Ganong bolstered that message:
“This isn’t nearly athletes. It’s about lecturers, ski patrollers, and households. This undertaking is about making Olympic Valley livable—completely. And if we do it proper, it may be a mannequin for each ski city within the nation.”
A Name to Motion
The Challenge Olympic workforce is elevating $200,000 to launch architectural planning and neighborhood engagement work. Early assist from donors has already introduced in additional than $42,000.
To be taught extra or contribute to the undertaking, go to the Challenge Olympic web site.
