Home of the Bethesda Center of Excellence
(BCE)
USA Canoe/Kayak
National Training Center
The BCE is a United States
Whitewater Canoe & Kayak Team Training Center centered
in Bethesda, Maryland. The mission of the BCE is to provide
high-quality, year-round whitewater training sites, world-class
training facilities, coaching,
training camps, and other training
and racing opportunities to all actively training and racing
slalom and wildwater
athletes.
The BCE racing program has
a record of over three decades of outstanding whitewater
racing history along the Potomac
River. Mild year round temperatures coupled with awesome
Potomac River whitewater from Great Falls to Little Falls
keeps our local whitewater athletes at the top of the slalom
racing scene.
Most years, BCE hosts a U.S.
Team Trials Qualifier in the Spring, a U.S.
Junior Olympic Qualifier in the Summer, and other local
slalom events. Every four years, BCE hosts a U.S. Olympic
Team Trials Qualifier, and in 2004, BCE hosted the U.S.
National Championships. BCE also annually supports many
local whitewater competition events.
Greater Washington area athletes
have been making the United States Whitewater Team since
the 1960's. BCE athletes first started using the Feeder
Canal on the Potomac River for their daily slalom gate training
workouts while preparing for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich,
Germany. And twenty years later, BCE athletes started using
the Dickerson Whitewater Course (currently owned by Mirant)
while preparing for the 1992 Olympic Games in La Seu d'Urgell,
Spain. Today BCE athletes of all ages train on these sites
and compete in the hundreds of whitewater competitions world-wide.
BCE's world-class
whitewater athletes are World
Champions, Olympic Medalists, and World Cup Medalists.
Thank you to everyone who supports
the BCE athlete programs and activities. We appreciate your
interest in our American athletes as they strive for whitewater
slalom excellence toward the 2008 Beijing Olympics and beyond!
