Arup’s venue design specialists influenced the design and improved operational features for the national Athletics stadium at the Videna National Sports Complex for the Pan American and Parapan American Games 2019. Due to wind directions, sprinters were likely to face prevailing southerly winds, slowing them down by precious fractions of seconds. Arup brought in to see if this issue could be solved by building a large wind barrier along the southern end of the stadium.

Following our review of the initial athletics stadium design, Arup proposed to swap the location of the main stand on the east side to the west side. This brought the facility in line with international standards and improved operational functionality.

By doing this, we reduced the facilities space which was doubling up and instead serves both the competition track and the adjacent warm-up/training track. This almost halved the built area, saving costs and construction time.

From reviewing the stand design itself, we suggested improvements to sightlines and proposed to curve the stand - both significantly improving the overall spectator experience in the stadium and the functionality of the track and field operations such as space for medal presentations.

Lima 2019 athletics stadium
View of Lima 2019 athletics stadium at Videna National Sports Complex