Lake Placid has put forth an offer to host sliding sports for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which are scheduled to take place in Italy, where organizers are struggling to provide a venue for bobsled, luge and skeleton racing. (Sports News)
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced the bid after its quarterly meeting Thursday, only two days after the chief of the Milan-Cortina Games said it is possible the hosts could come up with a new proposal to build a track.
In October, organizers told the IOC the Italian government had ordered them to move the events due to cost overruns involved in renovating the Cortina sliding track. Sliding centers in Switzerland and Austria were considered the best options.
Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980 and, as home of a U.S. Olympic Training Center, has a state-of-the-art sliding center.
Last year, a $104 million renovation of the Olympic center was wrapped up in time for Lake Placid to host the FISU World University Games.
USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said Olympic organizers invited the proposal from Lake Placid.
“At this stage, our role is simply to help them present a proposal and to endorse that proposal and ensure that we have the broad support required from the municipalities as well as from the athlete and (national governing body) community,” she said.
Milan-Cortina is hopeful of not becoming the first Winter Games to hold events outside the host nation's borders, though it's not unheard of on the Summer side: Next year's surfing competition for the Paris Olympics will be held in Tahiti.
