The Markham Pan Am Centre is a multi-purpose

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

and

aquatics Aquatics may refer to: *Aquatic sports in the Olympics and other international competitions, including the disciplines of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open water swimming *Water-related sports more broadly (including boa ...

centre located in the new

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

area of

Markham Markham may refer to: It may also refer to brand of of clothing which originates from South Africa which saw it's establishment in 1873. Biology * Markham's storm-petrel (''Oceanodroma markhami''), a seabird species found in Chile and Colombia * ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The facility was designed to host the

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

and

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

events for the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

, held in nearby

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in July and August, 2015. Markham Unveils Markham Pan Am Centre
/ref> The venue also hosted the table tennis competition in the

2015 Parapan American Games The 2015 Parapan American Games, officially the V Parapan American Games and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 ParaPan-Am Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, celebrated in the tradition of the Pa ...

. During the Pan Am and Parapan American Games the venue was known as the ''Atos Markham Pan Am / Parapan American Centre''. After the 2015 Pan Am Games, the facility continues to be used as a community and competition centre for

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

for Markham-area residents.

Design

The 13,657 square metre (147,000 sq. foot) multipurpose centre comprises three gymnasiums for training, competition and community use as well as a 10-lane, 50-metre

Olympic-size swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...

.Markham Pan Am Centre
The building became the first venue to be constructed for the 2015 Pan American Games to have its design unveiled and the official ground breaking for the facility was on October 9, 2012. The facility cost roughly $78 million Canadian dollars to be built and had its official opening on November 23, 2014. The building's triple gymnasium features 12 badminton courts, 6 volleyball, 2 basketball courts, and a 12.5-metre-high (41 ft.) ceiling that meets international BWF and FIVB requirements for height in badminton and volleyball. The warm-up hall adjacent to the main gymnasium features 3 badminton courts, 1 volleyball and 1 basketball court. The 50-metre pool was designed to meet

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

international and Olympic competition standards, and includes two movable bulkheads (walls) to section the pool into three zones, and permanent seating for 2,000 spectators. Other features include rooms for dance, yoga, and a two-level fitness centre.

Major competitions hosted

Badminton

Table Tennis

Water Polo

Swimming

Floorball

* World Floorball qualifications, 2014

References

External links

web site of Markham Pan Am Centre

Toronto 2015 Atos Markham Pan Am / Parapan Am Centre Page

City of Markham Pan Am Centre page
{{2015 Parapan American Games venues Badminton venues Buildings and structures in Markham, Ontario Water polo venues Sport in Markham, Ontario Badminton in Canada Venues of the 2015 Pan American Games Venues of the 2015 Parapan American Games 2014 establishments in Ontario Sports venues completed in 2014 Public–private partnership projects in Canada