Tolan Playfield
Tolan Playfield is named in honour of Thomas Edward "Eddie" Tolan (September 29, 1908 – January 30/31, 1967).
Nicknamed the "Midnight Express", Tolan was an American track and field athlete who competed in sprints. He set world records in the 100-yard dash and 100 meters event and Olympic records in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He was the first non-Euro-American to receive the title of the "world's fastest human" after winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In March 1935, Tolan won the 75, 100 and 220-yard events at the World Professional Sprint Championships in Melbourne to become the first man to win both the amateur and professional world sprint championships. In his full career as a sprinter, Tolan won 300 races and lost only 7.
No longer just a playfield, nowadays there are a new generations of champions training on this site.
In January 2018 the 64,000-square-foot, $4 million Lexus Velodrome opened here, featuring a 1/10th mile indoor Olympic-style cycling track with banked 50 degrees turns. Operated by the non-profit Detroit Fitness Foundation and offering free programs for youths and seniors, it is only the third indoor velodrome in the United States and is an excellent year-round facility for track cyclists to hone their racing skills for events such as sprints, points, scratch, pursuits, keirin, elimination and madison races.
With the right combination of ability, dedication and perseverance, this will surely be the birthplace of a future Detroit Olympian!
Logging Requirement
To log this cache, post a photograph of yourself with your GPS at the entrance to the velodrome. Extra credit of you go inside and take one of yourself with your GPS from inside or from the infield (there is no entrance fee except on race nights).
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.