Organizers say the 38th edition of Empire State Winter Games will be bigger and better than ever. WAMC's Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas caught up with officials Wednesday at Albany's Empire State Plaza ice rink.
"Our message to the entire state, in fact the entire region if not the entire world, is 'even in the winter, come out and play,'" said Empire State Winter Games Executive Director Tait Wardlaw, who notes the four-day festival will bring together athletes from across the state and beyond to compete in more than 30 events, offering a sense of "Olympic-like pageantry" during this Olympic year. "Which includes a torch relay that begins at the beginning of the Empire State Trail in Manhattan and will take runners and cyclists all the way up to Lake Placid over the course of four days, arriving at the Empire State Winter Games opening ceremony in Lake Placid on February 1st at 6 o'clock."
An expanded outdoor village on Lake Placid's Main Street will feature a zipline, snow tubing, local food and drink, live music and a winter bike competition. Wardlaw says the torch relay will begin in Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan and will pass through the Capital Region, arriving in the capitol building around 10 a.m. Wednesday, January 31st. "After the torch passes through the Capital Region we head up to Saratoga State Park, where the torch relay will also play host to a 'get out and play' event in the park, where it will have free snow-shoeing, winter bike riding in the park for anyone who cares to make it at 2 o'clock. “
Empire State Development I Love NY Vice President Ross Levi says events like the Empire State Winter Games are vital for tourism, the state’s fourth-largest industry. “So the Empire State Winter Games we’re associated with because we’re excited about the potential it has to bring more attention to this amazing region and all the great things there are to see and do."
The Empire State Winter Games begin February 1st, with a free opening ceremony in the Herb Brooks Arena in the Lake Placid Olympic Center. On Friday the Games will send the U.S. Aerialist Team off to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea with live music and a fireworks display.
