Updated: Thu Nov. 05 2009 5:05:53 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Canadian track and field athletes will race for gold at a new 15,000-seat stadium in Hamilton if Toronto is awarded the 2015 Pan American Games while swimmers will dive into a new pool big enough to host large-scale international events.

Toronto will learn Friday whether the city will host the 2015 Pan Am Games, and bid officials hope the venues Toronto is proposing will help lift it past competitors Bogota, Colombia and Lima, Peru.

Toronto's bid promises 50 venues in 17 municipalities spread out across the Golden Horseshoe, from Niagara Falls to Oshawa, and north to Barrie.

The crown jewels of the Games venues would be the $1 billion athletes village in the West Don Lands, expected to be turned into a mixed-income neighbourhood following the Games, and the Pan American Athletics Stadium in Hamilton, with seating for 15,000 spectators.

"The benefit to our athletes would be immeasurable," said rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando of Toronto. "I think this is the largest investment in sport infrastructure this province ever will have seen. Not only will it be putting up new facilities, which is incredible, but it also will be renovating existing ones."

Orlando, who won three gold medals at the 2007 Pan Ams in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, is with Toronto's bid committee in Guadalajara, Mexico where members will make an hour-long presentation to the Pan American Sport Organization on Friday before the winner is announced.

Other new venues proposed for construction include the Canadian Sports Institute Ontario (CSIO) at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, the site for volleyball and fencing at the Games and a multi-purpose training site for high performance athletes afterward.

The Pan American Aquatics Centre, to be built in Toronto, will have a pair of 50-metre pools and a dive tank and have the capacity for up to 10,000 spectators.

Officials also plan to build a cycling velodrome in Hamilton.

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, bronze medallist in the women's 100-metre hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said the new venues will go a long way in developing future generations of athletes in Ontario.

"I wish we had more facilities when I was growing up because we were kind of limited to certain places to go and work out," she said.

"This is going to help bring more opportunity for the younger generation. Once the Games have taken place and the facilities are there, it's going to enrich those kids and help with other events."

Among the existing venues proposed as event hosts are BMO Field (soccer), Copps Coliseum (volleyball), Fletcher's Fields in Markham (rugby), Mississauga's Hershey Centre (judo, taekwondo), the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta Course in St. Catharines (rowing), Ryerson University (basketball, racquetball), Ricoh Colisseum (gymnastics), the Air Canada Centre (basketball), Rogers Centre (baseball), Rexall Tennis Centre (tennis), and Roy Thomson Hall (weightlifting).

Rogers Centre would host the opening and closing ceremonies while the Metro Toronto Convention Centre would house the media and broadcast centres.

Competitions and training are clustered in Games Zones. The Central Zone includes Toronto, Brampton, Markham and Mississauga, the East Zone includes venues in Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering, and Whitby, while Burlington and Hamilton make up the West Zone.