Lake Placid has hosted two Winter Olympics – in 1932 and 1980 – and there remain dreams of the village being the center-point for a future Winter Olympics. The Adirondack Explorer brought together a diverse panel Thursday night at Mount Van Hoevenberg to discuss whether that can be done – and if so, how?
“It’s an idea that’s never died since the 1980 Olympics were here.”
Adirondack Explorer Publisher Tracey Ormsby brought the panel to Lake Placid to delve into the reality of the idea.
“Now that these facilities have been upgraded, they put all this money into it with the idea that they would bring more of these world class winter games here to the Adirondacks again. And they’re starting to do some of that. And Italy’s doing it in two different locations, Why not think about it to see if there’s a possibility of bringing it here.”
Six panelists discussed the feasibility and practicality of another Olympics in Lake Placid.
“Of course it’s really possible.”
New York State Assemblyman Robert Carroll is a Democrat from Brooklyn. In December he and former Assemblyman D. Billy Jones, who represented the North Country, wrote a joint op-ed in the New York Daily News calling for people to seriously consider a joint Lake Placid-New York City Olympic bid.
“We have the facilities ready to host these games. We’ve got Madison Square Garden and the Barkley Center and Yankee Stadium in the city of New York. And we’ve got this amazing biathlon facility and bobsled run and downhill run. We can put these things together. And I think we would be foolish not to consider it.”
Carroll said he would like to see an exploratory committee formed to look at the issues involved in a Lake Placid-New York City Olympics.
Marc Galvin, who operates a bookshop in Lake Placid, is past president of the Lake Placid Business Association and is a village trustee. He expects that even if a bid is placed to host a games 16 to 20 years from now, a number of issues will still be problematic, including transportation into the Adirondack region.
“The same challenges we had with transportation back in 1980 are the same and they’re not going to change. There’s always going to be the Cascades. There’s always going to be Wilmington Notch to deal with. And then people still have to get to their jobs so that we can service the people who come here to watch the games. So there’ll be a lot of questions for sure.”
NPR reporter Brian Mann lives in the Adirondacks, and has covered the Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid for more than 20 years. He is excited about the prospect of another Olympics, but said a number of questions need to be considered, including ORDA’s ability to maintain venues.
“At the meeting last month of the ORDA Board, they talk about it very transparently, that they don’t have the personnel, they don’t have the expertise, they don’t have the staff to even develop ongoing maintenance schedules for some of the facilities that now exist under ORDA’s management. That’s not a deal breaker for another Olympics but it’s one of these questions that we should roll up our sleeves and ask and answer now.”
ORDA CEO Ashley Walden noted that significant investments have been made in Olympic assets.
“Really as an organization we want to centralize things. We want to be bringing the venues together and we want to be doing what we can to not just to maintain those assets but to extend the life.”
Two Olympians from Lake Placid were on the panel. U.S. Biathlon four-time Olympian and coach Tim Burke says most venues could host an Olympics right now.
“They’re ready. For Nordic, for cross-country, for biathlon the venue is truly world class. The snowmaking capacity they have here on this venue is better than almost any other Nordic venue in the world.”
Several panelists noted that the distances to some venues at this year’s Winter Olympics in Cortina/Milan are greater than Lake Placid to New York City, lending credence to a joint bid.
The upcoming 2026 Winter Games start on February 6th.
