The Ontario Place West Channel, also known as the Toronto Western Beaches Watercourse is a "flat water" training and competition centre for rowing, paddling, and

water sports Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...

located on the shoreline of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

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 ...

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.

Description

The watercourse is situated in a man-made channel between the west island of

Ontario Place Ontario Place is an entertainment venue, event venue, and park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The venue is located on three artificial landscaped islands just off-shore in Lake Ontario, south of Exhibition Place, and southwest of Downtown Toronto. ...

and

Exhibition Place Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments ...

, fronting

Marilyn Bell Marilyn Grace Bell Di Lascio (born October 19, 1937) is a Canadian retired Long-distance swimming, long distance swimmer. She was the first person to swim across Lake Ontario and later swam the English Channel and Strait of Juan de Fuca. Perso ...

Park just west of

downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Stre ...

. The venue is accessible through Exhibition Place by two pedestrian bridges over

Lake Shore Boulevard Lake Shore Boulevard (often incorrectly compounded as Lakeshore Boulevard) is a major arterial road running along more than half of the Lake Ontario waterfront in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Prior to 1998, two segments of Lake Shore ...

and the

Martin Goodman Trail The Martin Goodman Trail is a Argonaut Rowing Club The Argonaut Rowing Club is an amateur rowing club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The club was founded in 1872. The current junior head coach is Connor Elsdon. In the past, the club fielded teams in ice hockey and football, and the football team c ...

since 1921, the watercourse was used for national

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

championships until the 1950s and for shows during the

Canadian National Exhibition The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Canadian Labour Day, ...

from the 1950s to the mid-1990s including the World Water Skiing Championships in 1953 and 1979 and was the host of the

Wakeboard Wakeboarding is a water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (a board with foot bindings), is towed behind a motorboat across its wake and especially up off the crest in order to perform aerial maneuvers. A hallmark of wakeboardin ...

World Championships in 2016 and 2017. It is also one of the viewing locations for the annual

Canadian International Air Show The Canadian International Air Show (CIAS) is an annual air show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The show is an aeronautical display of military, government and civilian aircraft, primarily from Canada and the United States. The show takes place a ...

Toronto 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games

For the

Toronto 2015 Pan Am 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 anchor ...

and Parapan Am Games, the facility hosted the

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...

open-water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water human swimming, swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when L ...

, waterskiing, and wakeboarding events. In conjunction with adjacent section of Lake Shore Boulevard, the venue also hosted the seating and start/finish line for

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes Recreational cycling, recreational, Road bicycle racing, racing, Bicycle commuting, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, ...

, marathon and the 20-kilometre race walk.

Recent upgrades

During the winter of 2005-2006,

Waterfront Toronto Waterfront Toronto (incorporated as the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation) is an organization that oversees revitalization projects along the Toronto waterfront. Established in 2001 as a public–public partnership between the City ...

upgraded 650 m of the western section of the channel to meet

International Dragon Boat Federation The International Dragon Boat Federation () is the international governing body for the team watersport of dragon boat racing. The Founder of the IDBF was Mike MacKeddie-Haslam (Great Britain) and the IDBF Founding Members in Hong Kong the on J ...

standards to host the Dragon Boat Racing Club Crew World Championships on August 8 to the 13, 2006. This included widening the facility to a 135-m-wide watercourse and a larger breakwater separating it from the lake. Further upgrades to the eastern section of the channel took place in 2014 after Toronto was awarded the 2015 Pan American Games; 600 m of the south channel breakwater wall and other water’s-edge structures were restored to allow required wave attenuation for current

International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) is the world governing body for all towed water sports. Founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1946, it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sole authority governing ...

waterski and wakeboard international competition standards.

External links

Waterfront Toronto Western Beaches Watercourse siteToronto 2015 - Ontario Place West ChannelGoogle Maps view in Ontario Place West Channel course
*

References

{{Sport venues in Toronto Rowing in Canada Venues of the 2015 Pan American Games Rowing venues Swimming venues in Canada Triathlon venues Sports venues in Toronto Exhibition Place Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in Toronto

Description

Toronto 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games

Recent upgrades

See also

External links

References