Ice Arena Tomaszów Mazowiecki is Poland's first year-round

ice skating rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water or an artificial sheet of ice where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The growth and increasing popularity of ...

that serves for

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, short track and

roller skating Roller skating is the act of travelling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreation, recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on s ...

. It is located near

Pilica River The Pilica is a river in central Poland, and the longest left tributary of the Vistula river, with a length of 333 kilometres (8th longest). All 9,258 km2 of its basin area is in Poland.Tomaszów Mazowiecki Tomaszów Mazowiecki (, or ''Tomashuv'') is a city in central Poland with 60,529 inhabitants (2021). It is the fourth most populous city in the Łódź Voivodeship and the second with free public transport. It is the seat of Tomaszów County, Ł ...

, 10 kilometers away from the Olympic Sports Centre in

Spała Spała is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Inowłódz, within Tomaszów Mazowiecki County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It lies on the Pilica River, approximately west of Inowłódz, east of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, and ...

, Poland. It was built between 2016 and 2017.

Construction

The investment was initiated by Mayor of Tomaszów Mazowiecki Marcin Witko, and Polish Sport and Tourism Minister Witold Bańka. Rosa-Bud company from Radom, Poland was the main builder of the arena. The project was included in a Strategic Investments Program of Sport and Tourism Ministry of the Republic of Poland. Funding from the ministry was 19 million PLN, while other financial means came from

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

. The process of construction lasted only fourteen months – it began in August 2016, and main works ended in September 2017. The official opening of the arena took place on December 14, 2017. President of Poland,

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as the sixth president of Poland since 2015. Before becoming president, he served as a Member of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014 and before becoming Member of ...

, took part in an official ceremony, which was also celebrated by a concert by Ray Wilson.

Characteristics

Ice Arena in Tomaszów Mazowiecki is the first and only year-round indoor arena designated for winter sports in Poland. The facility is accommodated to organizing events of different ranges. The arena meets the strict requirements of

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international sport governing body, governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded ...

, which makes it capable of organizing international events. The area of the facility is . A full-sized speed skating track, ice hockey, figure skating and short track rinks are located in this space. It also contains four ice freezing zones and modern sound and lighting systems that meet with HD broadcasting standards.

Arena in numbers

* 2000 lx – illuminance, only in LED technology * 1.5 seconds – sound movement between extreme points of the building. Thanks to the sound support system, all participants of the events can hear sound in real time, with no

echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

. * is the building's area. * is the allotment that Arena Lodowa is located on. * 850 tons is the roof's steel construction. * 4 Olympic disciplines are practised in the arena. The arena also offers fully equipped conference rooms. Beyond practice hours and sport events, the facility serves as a place for recreation for the citizens of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, and surrounding areas. During the course of the first summer holidays after the opening of the arena, the Town Hall organized sports school for children who stay in the city during summer. Concerts and cultural mass events are also organized in the facility.

Athletes and trainers related to the Arena

* Karolina Bosiek, the youngest Polish Olympian (2018, Pjongczang) * Karolina Gąsecka * Aleksandra Kapruziak *

Natalia Czerwonka Natalia Barbara Czerwonka (born 20 October 1988) is a Polish Long track speed skating, long track Speed skating, speed skater who participates in international competitions. In 2010, she was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Rest ...

Jaromir Radke Jaromir Radke (born 28 May 1969) is a Polish speed skater. He competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lilleham ...

* Paweł Abratkiewicz *

Zbigniew Bródka Zbigniew Marcin Bródka (; born 8 October 1984) is a Polish Speed skating, speed skater and a Speed skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics – Men's 1500 metres, 2014 Olympic champion in 1500 metres. He also works as a firefighter in the State Fire ...

*Wiesław Kmiecik *Jolanta Gołębiewska-Kmiecik

Notable events

* Polish Championships in speed skating and all-round event – December 16–17, 2017 * Polish Championships in speed skating on distances – October 26–28, 2017 * Polish Championships in Short Track – January 19–21; 2018 * 2018 World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships - March 2–4, 2018 *

2018–19 ISU Speed Skating World Cup The 2018–19 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, officially the ''ISU World Cup Speed Skating 2018–2019'', was a series of six international speed skating competitions that ran from November 2018 through March 2019. Calendar The detailed schedule for ...

- December 7-8, 2018 * Polish Seniors Championships in Short Track – March 15–17, 2018 * Concert celebrating 40th anniversary of Bajm – April 13, 2018 * Nationwide challenge: Little Heroes – June 21, 2018 * Be Active Tour with Ewa Chodakowska – July 1, 2018 *Juniors World Cup in speed skating – November 24–25, 2018 *

*Czech Speed Skating Championships 2019 * 2019–20 ISU Speed Skating World Cup * 2022–23 ISU Speed Skating World Cup

References