The mayor of Lake Placid says the village will be ready if some 2026 Winter Olympic events need to be relocated to upstate New York. It comes amid initial conversations about the Olympic Regional Development Authority readying to host bobsled, luge and skeleton events during the Milan-Cortina Games.
Facilities in Italy are being rebuilt for the games and might not be ready in time. Lake Placid hosted the games in 1932 and 1980 and still serves as a training ground for U.S. Olympians. It hosted the World University Games in 2023.
Mayor Art Devlin says a decision will have to made soon. He spoke with WAMC’s Ian Pickus on Thursday.
What was your reaction to this development?
It’s great news. We've been in the wings for quite a while, but it's good to be the actual official designation.
What kind of preparations will locals have to do should this come to pass?
Well, I think the biggest thing is going to be probably through ORDA. I understand you talked to them already, but making final upgrades and improvements at the bobsled or all the sliding tracks will be very important. And as far as the village itself, I don't think there's a lot we have to do. In this case, they're going to be taking care of the housing of the athletes and all the other arrangements.
It's been quite a long time, obviously, since the Olympics were there. Do you sense that people are excited about the possibility that it could come back?
As far as in Lake Placid goes? That's a good question. I have not talked to any of the store owners about it or what have you, but you know, anytime you can have anything to do with an Olympics, we've gotten to the point now where the Olympics are so big that I don't believe we could hold a full Olympics anymore. The best we could do would be to hope for partnership with, say, New York City, or, in a case like this, where we take on somebody's sliding event. So this is the best we're going to do on an Olympic stage, in my opinion.
I remember hearing about, you know, possible bids coming in that would include northern New York facilities and maybe Montreal or something. But this would be pretty unusual to have most of the games take place in Italy, and then these just a couple of events over here, right?
I agree it is unusual, but when I mention that to people in the know, they say that there is some precedence for this. There are events that already have been held, that some of the venues are quite far apart. And of course, that was one of the big drawing cards in 1980: you can see every event from every event, and everything was in a very small radius, which was very nice early for everybody.
Do you have any idea of what a timeline would be when you might get the official word that the Plan B could become the Plan A?
I am not 100% sure on that, but there's going to have to be lead time, as I mentioned, they're going to have to work on housing the athletes, bussing, press centers, food, you know, everything. There's going to have to be a timeline that they're going to have to let us know, or we just can't ramp up in time. And I would think that would have to come in the next two or three months. But ORDA would be the one to answer that?
So that's pretty soon for 2026.
I would think so. Like I say, they would be the authority on that. But, you know, you just can't, all of a sudden, snap your fingers and work with colleges to have their students not be in session at that time and using their facilities.
Do you think you learned anything about an event like this from the World University Games experience?
I would say yes. Anytime you have any event on a world stage, it's a learning process. And as we said during the World University Games, the problem is that by the time you know what you're doing and you're really good at it, it's gone. You know, most of the people from 1980 are gone that had the experience. So I think that's just the nature of the beast. Every time you have something like this, you're reinventing the wheel. When you get all done, you know what you're doing.
Are you rooting against Italy getting its rebuilt facilities done in time, just on the off-chance that this might work out for your region?
No, I don't think any of us are looking for that. To be honest with you, I hope they get their bob run done in time. It'll make a much, much better experience for the athletes and the spectators and all if everyone can be all together, but if they're not able to, then we're happy to step up and host the world once again.
