The centre is located at the exit of Wałcz by the national road No. 22 towards Gorzów Wielkopolski.
Wałcz Bukovina is a land planted with a beech forest within the town borders. The first buildings had already existed in the second half of the nineteenth century. Sports facilities were built in the 1930s. As early as in 1940, athletes there for the Olympics. It retained its sports and recreational nature after 1945, and the Olympic Training Centre was established there in 1949. At that time, a small, heavily damaged sports facility was there. However, the awareness of excellent natural conditions and, above all, the enthusiasm of the then sports activists led by Piotr Madziński, the first director of this centre, allowed for a quick reconstruction of the pith, jogging track and prepared accommodation facilities for athletes. The activities aroused Jan Mulak's - the coach of the national team of athletes, interest in the Wałcz centre. That was the beginning of the beautiful phenomenon of a famous Polish athletics Wunderteam. It was one of the four world powers (the USA, USSR, Germany and Poland) in the 1950s and 1970s. All major Polish athletes - Jerzy Chromik, Kazimierz Zimny, Zbigniew Orywał, Bronisław Malinowski trained there; and Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak set a world record in 3000 m steeplechase. The official opening of the Centre took place in 1950 and that same year the first training camp for the first-division basketball and volleyball teams, and a grouping of national team of athletes took place. The national team of kayakers started coming to Wałcz in 1953, and the team of rowers - in 1962. A specific shape of Lake Raduń made the water sports lovers particularly fond of the place and they have been regularly coming to Wałcz, calling The SC - The OTC, or Bukovina, their second home. Currently, kayakers are training for the Olympics at the Sports Centre. They are, for example, Marek Kolbowicz, Konrad Wasilewski, Michał Jelinski and Adam Korol - the gold medal winners at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Despite the subsequent changes in Polish sport, the Centre still welcomes excellent athletes, both Polish and foreign ones. If possible, it provides accommodation and recreation also for tourists. Holidaymakers come there eagerly; even camps, winter camps and other forms of recreation for children and youth, conferences, meetings, training sessions, company events with games and integration actives are organised. Catering facilities of the SP OTC in Wałcz provide tasty meals prepared in their own kitchen and tailored to the type of groups. The SP - the OTC in Wałcz is a partner of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy 'Large Family Card' programme - for card holders there is a 20% discount on accommodation and meals, a swimming pool, playground, sports hall, tennis courts, gyms, wellness-based rejuvenation treatments and sport equipment rentals.
However, the main task of the Olympic Training Centre is to provide the best conditions for training, rehabilitation and recreation for Polish Olympic athletes. The equipment for trainings is constantly modernised and developed, just as rehabilitation, rejuvenation medical treatments offer is getting richer.
This continuous improvement of service quality and great beech forests, fresh air, clean and beautifully situated lake make it the ideal place for leisure and sports, both amateur and professional one.
Worth seeing