By Bill Peterson

Hays Highway Editor

SAN MARCOS – The Olympics are soon to touch Hays County as never before.

USA Canoeing/Kayaking will bring a regional trial for its national kayaking team to Rio Vista Falls in San Marcos on Feb. 17.

Ben Kvanli, the 1996 Olympic kayaker who lives in San Marcos, said the competition is coming Tuesday night after the San Marcos City Council formalized an agreement with the Red River Racing team of Austin to use the facility for winter training.

The national kayaking organization will put on its southwest regional qualifier, one of four regional qualifiers, at Rio Vista. The Rio Vista event will be the first of the four regional qualifiers, with the national team trial to take place in Charlotte, NC, April 25-27. The 2008 Olympics will take place Aug. 8-24 in Beijing.

Officials said Rio Vista became an ideal destination for winter kayaking when the city renovated the falls in 2006 after discovering the dam had become structurally unsafe. The city took the opportunity to re-build the course, traditionally popular with summer inner-tubers, changing one six-foot drop into three two-foot drops.

Once the inner-tubing season closes out after Labor Day, the kayakers take over the falls for training. Local kayakers urged the city council Tuesday night to leverage the falls as a resource to promote a unique sort of winter tourism. With the right promotion, kayakers said, San Marcos will become a destination for top-level kayakers around the world, who would come to the city for weeks at a time for winter training on the falls.

Indeed, neither Kvanli nor Jim Stuart, the Red River Racing director and former national team official, were content to say San Marcos would become a "kayaking capital." They both went so far as to say San Marcos would become a "kayaking mecca."

Kvanli said the falls could become a destination for national kayaking competitions, as well as international competitions at the youth level.

"We have some really unique things here," said Kvanli, who attended Texas State and now works for the San Marcos Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Rio Vista Falls is unique in all the world."

Said Stuart, "There is no other course with warm water, constant flow and temperate climate all year around."

Stuart told the city council that San Marcos could expect to generate "hundreds of thousands of dollars" over time as kayakers from colder climates throughout the world utilize the Rio Vista course.

The agreement between Red River Racing and San Marcos is for one year, to run between the first of November and the first weekend in April. After one year, said San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz, the city staff will review the agreement and determine what adjustments are necessary from the city's standpoint.

Red River Racing has typically used the course for winter training. However, with an Olympic team trial coming, the organization wanted to formalize the arrangements.

Stuart made the national team in 1970 and worked in development for the team for most of the last three decades. During the 1970s, Stuart said, most of the team came from the Washington, DC, area. If San Marcos leverages its Rio Vista resource for winter training, he said, San Marcos will become that kind of city for developing world-class kayakers.

"In years to come, this could become a kayaking city," Stuart said. "You'll see people walking around carrying their kayaks."

Kvanli's wife Michelle, who is arranging the Olympic trial, said she would expect 25-30 athletes in February due to the short notice.

"We have some amazing opportunities," she said.

Narvaiz said the kayaking trial fits right in with the city's hopes when it rebuilt the dam.

"I think one of the major goals was to attract more people," Narvaiz said. "We knew it would become a tourist attraction. We can say there's an Olympic event going on here."