Lake Placid Working With Italian Officials as a Backup Sliding Site for 2026 Winter Games

Lake Placid, New York, could be the host for bobsled, luge and skeleton in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games should the sliding venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo not be completed by March 2025.

The Olympic Regional Development Authority has entered “targeted dialogue” with the 2026 Milano-Cortina Organizing Committee. Fondazione Milano Cortina and Lake Placid will further develop backup plans for the sliding events and ORDA will engage with stakeholders and partners to formalize the bid proposal into a detailed plan.

“I feel it was a pretty passionate bid,” said Olympic Regional Development Authority Communications Director Darcy Rowe Norfolk. “We are a former host city and have had reinvestment by the state of New York to be world class again. We’re in demand and it felt like the right place for us to be a partner if we can activate. And we want the best for Italy for their track and their legacy.”

The IOC had previously made clear its preference to have sliding events elsewhere since the track in Cortina had been abandoned. Along with Lake Placid, proposals were submitted from Austria and Switzerland. Norfolk said Lake Placid submitted an updated bid with further information in July. ORDA, along with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, recently received letters from Fondazione Milano Cortina that it will be the backup option.

The Milan-Cortina organizers are rebuilding the Cortina track for $86.4 million and progress of the Cortina sliding track was praised during last week’s IOC Executive Board meetings. The Cortina track needs to be certified by March to be approved for use in the February 6–22, 2026 Games. Local organizers are scheduled in March to hold an event that will allow them to get athlete feedback.

The Bidding Process

Lake Placid’s bid for being a 2026 venue focused on a number of factors. It offers the venue, existing venue staff plus utilities at no cost to the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee. The Italian sliding teams would also be allowed to use the facilities full-time for training before the Games and reside in the international wing at the U.S. Olympic Performance Training Center.

The bid has two alternatives for housing athletes and officials. One would utilize nearby Paul Smith’s College along with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers. The other alternative would have U.S. and Italian athletes at the training center and others staying in hotels throughout the village. The Lake Placid Conference Center would be used as the main dining hall for athletes.

Norfolk said there have been some modifications from the original bid, mostly transportation and travel schedules for potential delegations and athletes that would compete in Lake Placid. The bid has proposed medal ceremonies at Rockefeller Center in the heart of the city and headquarters of NBC, whose broadcast contract with the IOC is one of the biggest sources of revenue for the organization.

“The concept takes the athletes after competition to Rockefeller Center and obviously create a fan zone and have that be where they receive their medals,” Norfolk said. “They may not be in the host city but the concept is to make them feel like they are. The celebration center would be a very special moment for the athletes and the Olympic movement.”

Standing on World Stage

The Mt Van Hoevenberg Sliding Center track is considered to be one of the world’s most technically challenging and a new 55,000-square-foot Mountain Pass Lodge includes a state-of-the-art indoor push track. The village will host the 2025 International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Championships, its 11th time hosting the event overall which could, if needed, serve as a test event for the 2026 Games.

Lake Placid underwent extensive renovations at all its winter sports venues over the past few years ahead of hosting the 2023 World University Winter Games. The picturesque village in the Adirondack region of New York is hallowed ground for the Olympic Winter Games. In 1932, the United States hosted the Winter Games for the first time and the first Olympic medals were awarded in a podium ceremony. It was also the first time Coca-Cola became a sponsor of the Olympics. In 1980, it hosted Eric Heiden’s historic speedskating sweep and the Miracle on Ice as the U.S. beat the Soviet Union in men’s ice hockey.

As a member of the Olympic family from its host history — and with next year being the 45^th anniversary of the 1980 Games, and the centenary celebration of 1932 within the next decade — ORDA was part of an event at the Annual Meeting of the World Union of Olympic Cities in Lausanne where Norfolk presented Lake Placid’s recent impact and legacy initiatives.

“Legacy, impact and sustainability tend to be more focused on future host cities and what they are planning,” said Norfolk. “Then you hear and understand the story of Lake Placid and having hosted in the past decades ago, reinvested in and again world-class, and now a prospective back-up to a slice of the Olympics at the highest level of international competition … it’s a good story on how we are keeping relevant in the Olympic Movement and keeping the spirit alive.”