The Legacy of the 1976 Olympics Goes Way Beyond a Stadium

When Montrealers remember the 1976 Olympics, the Olympic Stadium tends to swallow the frame. But the Games also left behind three purpose-built venues outside the Olympic Park: the Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, the Centre d’activités Étienne-Desmarteau, and the Olympic Basin. Fifty years later, their legacy is less monumental but more closely woven into the city’s everyday life.

Map showing the venues used for the 1976 Olympic Games. | Photograph: 2022 / International Olympic Committee (IOI)

Ahead of the 1976 Olympics, the City of Montreal had to come up with a range of venues that could accommodate the 21 different sports in which over 6,000 athletes would compete. Many of the nearly 200 events took place at other sites in and outside of Montreal. Football took place at stadiums as far away as Sherbrooke, Ottawa, and Toronto. Sailors travelled to Kingston, Ontario to compete at Portsmouth's Olympic Harbour.

The City of Montreal adapted existing sites of Montreal’s sporting landscape to conform to the official requirements of the Olympic Games. Gymnasts balanced on beams at the Forum, fencers sparred at the Université de Montréal’s Winter Stadium, and hockey players skated at McGill University’s Molson Stadium.

The City also created new venues: beyond the Olympic Stadium, Pool, and Velodrome in the Olympic Park, three other venues were built in Montreal specifically for the Games including the Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, the Centre d’activités Étienne-Desmarteau, and the Olympic Basin. All of these have become central to the city’s present-day sports and recreation infrastructure.

These sites blend so seamlessly into our urban landscape today that we may forget that the Olympic Games were the reason for their creation or redevelopment. Looking back at the design, construction, and later renovation of these new sites can tell us about why they were created, and their continued use by Montrealers in the decades that followed.

The Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard can do it all

The Complexe sportif’s Claude-Robillard's wall of windows. | Photograph: Archives de la Ville de Montréal / VM94-Od04-053

Handball and water polo competitors entered the then-named Centre Claude-Robillard through its wide entrance, brightened by the light coming through a fenestrated wall. Designed in collaboration between architects Robillard, Jetté, Caron and Bédard et Charbonneau, this modernist structure in Ahuntsic-Cartierville was built for the handball and water polo events of the 1976 Summer Games, but has since served Montrealers for a wide variety of sports.

Handball at the 1976 Olympic Games. | Photograph: Archives de la Ville de Montréal / VM94-Od04-113

Bearing the name of the first director of the City of Montreal’s parks service, the facility accommodates a range of indoor and outdoor sports. Its multi-sports hall was designed to be used for volleyball, basketball, and badminton, as stated in the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (COJO) report on the Olympic facilities published in 1978. The outdoor area has a track, and fields for hockey, football, and baseball.

Bird’s eye view of the Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard. | Photograph: Anthony Plagnes Payá

Patrimoine Montréal published a report in 2016 affirming this site’s architectural, historical, and social value. The infrastructure’s integration into its surroundings reflects its functionality and the creative collaboration between its various designers: architects, landscape architects, and a sculptor. The natural light visually and physically connects the inside of the building to its outdoor surroundings. Paved walkways link between the building, sports fields, and natural landscape.

Time has proved that functionality has been key to this sports centre's longevity. Today, it is one of Montreal’s most important sports hubs, attracting both recreational users and elite athletes.

Its ongoing renovations have been making the space more accessible and more modern while preserving its modernist character. Some of the interior’s details, such as the tiled floors and concrete blocks, date back to its creation. The City announced that it will replace the vast wall of windows in 2028-2029, without mentioning any major design change.

Rosemont’s own Centre d’activités Étienne-Desmarteau

Exterior view of the Centre Étienne-Desmarteau during the 1976 Olympic Games. | Photograph: Archives de la Ville de Montreal / VM94-Od04-049

Montrealer Étienne Desmarteau won Canada’s first gold medal at the 1904 Olympics. The site named after him hosted the 1976 Olympic Games’ preliminary basketball games (although Demarteau actually competed in weight throwing).

The City did not initially plan to build the Centre Étienne-Desmarteau, as it was known before it became the Centre d’activités, for the Olympic Games. The preliminary basketball games were planned to take place at the existing Centre Paul-Sauvé until early 1974, when the COJO approved the Centre Étienne-Desmarteau site.

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