Legacies of North American Winter Games - Lake Placid
VANOC commissioned the
Legacies of North American Winter Games report believing the
most appropriate model for understanding the potential legacies of
the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games is the
experiences of other Winter Games held within the North American
context since 1980. The independently-written reports offer
detailed look back on the experiences of previous North American
Olympic Winter Games hosts.
The
Lake
Placid report is based on research obtained from many documents
including newspaper and magazine articles, official reports,
studies, books, and original interviews to outline the legacies to
the host community of the 1980 Games. Key among the findings are a
number of impressive economic and sport legacies including the
following:
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In 2000, the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) and the State of New York opened the first non–Olympic Games bobsleigh, skeleton and luge track in North America, a $24-million structure that has been hosting World Cups ever since.
The official poster of the 1980 Games in Lake Placid. -
In the 2004–05 fiscal year, 25 years after the Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Winter Games, the overall economic impact of the Olympic Regional Development Authority’s operations to the village and the counties surrounding it was $323.7 million USD.
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In 2004, an estimated 333,535 non-resident visitors patronized ORDA facilities. The direct impact of visitor spending on the local economy that year was more than $310 million USD, resulting in 1,056.6 jobs.Almost 90 per cent of the U.S. Olympic Team at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games had gone through training in Lake Placid at some time during their sports careers.
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Almost 90 per cent of the U.S. Olympic Team at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games had gone through training in Lake Placid at some time during their sports careers.
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20 of the U.S. medallists at the Torino Olympic Winter Games trained in Lake Placid.
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33 of the 34 medals awarded to the U.S. Olympic Team at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games were won by athletes who trained in Lake Placid.
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Lake Placid has had at least one local athlete at every Olympic Winter Games since they began in Chamonix, France, in 1924.
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125 Lake Placid–area athletes have competed in the Olympic Winter Games
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One of the most famous Lake Placid–trained American athletes is 1976 Olympic figure skating champion Dorothy Hamill.
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Four Lake Placid–area native athletes competed in the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
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U.S. speed skater Eric Heiden set a record in Lake Placid in 1980 at the age of 21 that has yet to be beaten by another individual athlete—five gold medals.
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The U.S. luge, bobsleigh and skeleton teams are based in Lake Placid. The village also functions as a home away from home for the U.S. women’s ice hockey team, which frequently holds its camps there.
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Lake Placid hosts an average of five World Cups every year, in addition to numerous other competitions. In 2006–07, it is slated to stage the World Cups in bobsleigh, skeleton, freestyle skiing and snowboard.
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The Lake Placid 1980 Games featured the “Miracle on Ice,” in which a seventh-seeded U.S. hockey team largely made up of collegiate players was coached by Herb Brooks to adopt a European mode of play. It ultimately defeated the Soviet team and went on to beat Finland and take the gold medal.
An iconic moment of the Lake Placid Games: The "Miracle on Ice" in which Team USA won Olympic Gold. -
Two movies have been made about the “Miracle on Ice”—one TV movie in 1981 starring Karl Malden as Herb Brooks and another in 2004 starring Kurt Russell as the coach. HBO made a documentary about the game, and it was also featured in the final episode of the PBS series People’s Century, “Fast Forward.”
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Through its mission of promoting education and year round sport and recreation, ORDA continues to offer adults and children programs. Since 1995, over 65,000 people of all ages, have participated in sport programs at Games sport venues and 650 schools in New York state and Vermont organize field trips to allow students to attend sports clinics, meet high performance athletes, tour the facilities, and use the venues to advance learning in key areas such as event management and physics.
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The Lake Placid National Sports Academy, started in 1977 in a hotel built for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, has a regular enrollment of 80 students and alumni that includes 14 Olympians. Northwood School, which has 17 Olympic athletes as alumni, makes full use of the Olympic training facilities for its student athletes and future Olympians.
Quick Facts about the 1980 Olympic Winter
Games (source: IOC):
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Dates: Feb. 13 to 24, 1980
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37 NOCs (Nations)
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1,072 athletes (232 women, 840 men)
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38 events
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6,703 volunteers
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