The Lake Placid Sliding Center has been proposed to host bobsled, skeleton and luge events for Italy’s Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) confirmed Thursday after its quarterly Board of Directors meeting in Stamford, Connecticut.
A robust 50-page proposal developed by the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) was submitted to the Milan-Cortina organizing committee by the USOPC on December 1 in response to a tender distributed on November 1 to existing sliding tracks around the world.
“The organizers of Milan-Cortina are actively seeking solutions to support the sliding sport competition at the 2026 Games and I’m proud to say the New York Olympic Authority has stepped up and that we’re fully supportive of their efforts to welcome the world in 2026,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said.
Italian Games organizers have been asked by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to find an existing sliding track outside Italy after efforts to reconstruct the now dilapidated Eugenio Monti track built for the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo failed. The organizing committee had received no construction bids for the project and estimated costs soared. Further efforts to use the now-mothballed track in Cesena built for the Turin 2006 Games received significant pushback after its legacy was questioned.
ORDA’s head of communications Darcy Rowe Norfolk has been the project’s bid director and she believes Lake Placid is among five to seven applicants to stage the events. European facilities in Igls, Austria and St. Moritz, Switzerland have been mooted as the most likely stand-ins for sliding due to their proximity to Italy.
Though no official timeline on the selection of the venue has been set, Rowe Norfolk hopes to hear more by the end of the month.
“We are serious about this, and we have a compelling solution that is good for the displaced athletes, the movement and sliding sports,” she told GamesBids.com.
Milan-Cortina has an agreement with the IOC to find a solution by January 2024 as test events are slated to begin in 2025.
But some Italian government officials have not given up, vowing that the event will remain in Italy.
Deputy prime minister and transport minister Matteo Salvini told a Games steering committee Tuesday “The ministry of transport will develop a proposal that will not cost Italians a cent more.”
“The aim is to present a project to decision makers as soon as possible.”
In a statement to AFP, Milan-Cortina officials said they were “waiting to receive the projects (for Cortina and Cesana) in order to carry out a verification phase with the IOC and the international federations concerned.”
It also said that American, German, Austrian and Swiss Olympic committees have been contacted if it becomes necessary to host the event outside its borders for the first time in Winter Olympics history.
Hirshland said facilities in Salt Lake City had also been considered by the USOPC but officials in Utah are more focused on its bid to host the 2034 Winter Games, which they will likely win as sole candidate on the ballot next July.
‘We were invited to submit a proposal by the organizing committee of Milan-Cortina 2026 and we asked all of the various organizations in our country in particular, you know we have two sliding facilities both used regularly for World Cup and elite level competition,” Hirshland said when asked by GamesBids.com.
“The New York authority is really excited about the prospect of supporting a 2026 Games.
“Should they be engaged in that conversation and push forward with a concept of hosting then we will play a role in facilitating as we would do with a lot of international competitions.”
The proposal aims to build links between Lake Placid and Cortina, using the tagline “1 degree of separation” to emphasize that Lake Placid is a 44 degrees north latitude and Cortina is at 45 degrees. It reminds that both places have previously hosted the Games and Cortina defeated Lake Placid to win its 1956 bid (31-1, with Colorado Springs receiving 2 votes and Montreal 7).
Also highlighted is Italian hero Eugenio Monti, after whom Cortina’s track is named, and his 1961 World Championship wins in Lake Placid.
“In honor of Eugenio Monti and carrying forward his legacy, the Sliding Center at Mt Van Hoevenberg will name turn 7 in his honor,” the proposal promises.
Big plans for the medal ceremonies are also in the works.
“New York City will provide a Celebration Center at Rockefeller Center for the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games 2026,” the bid states.
“The Celebration Center will host three to four medal ceremonies after each sport discipline during the time period of the Games.”
Athletes are promised a New York City experience and “engagement with prominent actors, business people, restauranteurs of Italian American descent and highlighting the Italian diaspora” before traveling back to Milan for the closing ceremony.
Included in the proposal is an offer to the Italian team to use the Lake Placid track as its home sliding venue for training.
Lake Placid hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games and the Mt Van Hoevenberg track staged sliding events in each edition. A third Games would be the most by any Winter Olympics host.
