The deadline to submit a bid package for the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games is November 15, but the Lake Placid News reports local officials said Thursday there’s not enough time to put a bid together for those Games, so they’re now leaning towards a 2020 bid.
Interest in a Youth Games bid reportedly increased last November when local leaders attended a summit of former Olympic cities in Lausanne, Switzerland and were encouraged to submit a bid for the Youth Games by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge.
USOC CEO Scott Blackmun was in Lake Placid this summer and reportedly discussed the possibility of a bid with local officials. The USOC would have to give Lake Placid the go-ahead to assemble a bid.
North Elba Supervisor Roby Politi, under the impression based at that meeting that the deadline to submit a bid for 2016 had come and gone, said, “Lake Placid is interested in bidding and hosting a future Youth Winter Olympic Games. I think we are targeting 2020 only because I though 2016 had passed”.
James McKenna, President and CEO of the Lake Placid Convention and Visitors Bureau said, “I think that’s the preferred bid for us. 2016 is a little too quick for us, and to put a bid together by (Nov. 15) would be difficult”.
Serge Lussi, head of the Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Commission, said the village has the facilities and could host a Youth Olympic Games “tomorrow morning” if it had to. But, according to the Lake Placid News, local officials want to gauge the success of the first Summer Youth Games in Singapore last month and the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012 before proceeding with a Lake Placid bid.
