Barra Velodrome

Barra Velodrome

Interior view of the Barra Velodrome, during the 2007 Pan American Games
Location	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Capacity	5,000
Field size	250 m × 7 m (820 ft × 23 ft) track
Construction
Opened	July 2007
Demolished	2013
Construction cost	$35 million
Architect	Sander Douma Architects

The Barra Velodrome was a track cycling venue located in Barra da Tijuca, in western Rio de Janeiro, and was one of three venues constructed as part of the City of Sports Complex for the 2007 Pan American Games, where it hosted track cycling and speed roller skating events. The venue was initially slated to host cycling events for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but was instead demolished in favour of the replacement Rio Olympic Velodrome, after the International Cycling Union (UCI) deemed the venue unsuitable for the games. The Olympic Aquatics Stadium now occupies the former site of the velodrome.

The facilities planned for the 2007 Pan American Games included the City of Sports Complex on the location of the Nelson Piquet International Autodrome, which encompassed an indoor arena, an aquatic center and a velodrome. The indoor arena for track cycling would be the first in Brazil and second in South America with a wooden track, designed and built in the Netherlands with Siberian Pine by Sander Douma Architects. It would originally be a temporary facility, but by 2007 the Rio city administration decided to turn into a permanent one. Legal and bureaucratic issues made construction, which was supposed to have ended by the end of 2005, only pick up in early 2006, and the buildings were delivered on July 2007, shortly before the games. After the conclusion of the games, the Barra Velodrome quickly became obsolete, as the venue failed to attract events in the years following the Pan American Games.