Sports and Tourism
The town of Ústí nad Orlicí can provide its visitors with many free time activities, the choice of sports facilities is very wide and varied. The potential for nice sport activities and active recreation has been considered as one of advantages of the whole region in the recent years.
Near the town centre, you can find a large all-sports resort with a stadium for athletics and football fitted with artificial turf. Furthermore, there are volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, a sauna and a fitness centre. This area also includes the Aquapark which was built in 2000. There are also an indoor swimming pool with salt water, a double-lane skittle hall, an ice rink, and a bowling centre. You may find an active tourism resort – a camping and boating area called Cakle in the town’s part of Staré Oldřichovice. There you can rent boating and cycling equipment or go up the climbing wall. It lies in the immediate vicinity of the newly opened and unique cycle path and an in-line skating track. In addition to rental service of bikes and in-line skates, the resort also offers fun of climbing on a climbing wall and the Tarzan’s rope park, including the instructor services. The resort also includes rental service for boating equipment, and sports and climbing facilities. The local airport offers sightseeing flights, pilot and parachute trainings. Around the town, there are many trails for cycling and walking tours, such as those along the chapels of Calvary leading to the observation tower at the Andrlův Chlum hill.
Ústí nad Orlicí is the crossroad of new cycle paths which were built between 2007 and 2009. The unique 40 km long cycle paths offer you special experience and numerous sports activities. The paths lead through the beautiful river valley of the Tichá Orlice and Třebovka rivers to Choceň, Letohrad and Česká Třebová and they are designed for cycling and in-line skating. The routes are fitted with information tables and refreshment stops. Accommodation and restaurant services are available at the Sporthotel Tichá Orlice.
The town organises many interesting sport events. In the nearby ski resort in Říčky, Eagle Mountains, there is the annual winter junior international competition in downhill skiing called Skiinterkriterium. In summer, there are the international up-hill car race up the Andrlův chlum hill called Ústecká 21, and the Rieter Cup, a Czech championship in men’s and women’s tennis, and many cycling and hiking events.
Many outstanding sport personalities lived in Ústí nad Orlicí. Václav Čevona is undoubtedly the most famous one. He won several championships in running for 1500 metres with his rival Emil Zatopek who achieved his greatest success at the Olympic Games in London in 1948 where he won the fourth place. He also participated in two European championships and became the academic world champion in Berlin in 1951. There are other successful sports in the town, too. The Olympic Games sportsman Jaroslav Kulhavý represents the Czech Republic in cycling sports. He is a European and world junior champion of from 2003 and a bronze medallist from World Championship in 2007 in the category under 23 years of age. In 2010 he won the gold medal in the European Championship. Lukáš Novák also regularly achieves excellent results. He is the absolute leader in the fire-fighting sport, a multiple European champion and the world champion. He is invincible in the toughest fire-fighters races of TFA - Toughest Fire-fighter Alive.
To expand the range of sports and fun, there are many fitness centres, gyms and a number of organisations that run individual sport facilities.
Links
Cycle paths
Tourist and cycling routes