A figure skating exhibition by 16-year-old Vancouver Olympian Cheltzie Lee will highlight the launch of the Olympic Winter Institute’s new home at the Ice House, Docklands, Melbourne, on Tuesday evening, March 30.

Lee, back in Australia after competing at the World Figure Skating Championships in Torino over the weekend, will be joined at the launch by Vancouver gold medallist Lydia Lassila, aerial skiing team-mate Jacqui Cooper and the world’s number two snowboard cross athlete, Alex “Chumpy” Pullin.

Salt Lake 2002 gold medallist Steven Bradbury will also be honoured during the evening, when the second rink of the Ice House complex is officially named after him.

State Labor MP and dual Olympian Kirstie Marshall, and AOC President John Coates, will share official duties at the gala occasion, which marks a significant step forward for Australian winter sport.

The OWI was established in mid-1998 after the Nagano 1998 Winter Games, and during the 11 plus years since then the Institute has achieved results that were never dreamt of at the time of its incorporation.

With the opening of the Ice House offices, the OWI will change from a purely administrative institute to a physical one for the Olympic ice skating disciplines, with immense benefits for our athletes of the present and the future

OWI administration will take place in a series of offices on the third floor of the building, overlooking the two ice rinks.

Incorporated in the building will be a medical clinic, gymnasium, and dance and multipurpose facilities with a polished floor and mirrors to assist figure skating and speed skating dry land training.

The $60m Ice House development is the most outstanding facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and the OWI and winter sports in general are very much indebted to ING, the developer of the complex, and to the State Government of Victoria for making it possible.

Six other Vancouver Olympians will also be at the launch – aerial skiers Liz Gardner, Bree Munro and David Morris, mogul skier Britteny Cox, ski cross athlete Katya Crema and snowboarder Joh Shaw.

National ice dancing champions Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman will also skate, while curling, ice hockey and short track speed skating demonstrations will also be a feature of the evening.