Home to the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, the upstate New York village of Lake Placid could be in the running to host the Games for a third time if it can partner with the country’s largest metropolitan area.
Governor Kathy Hochul has launched an exploratory committee to look at the feasibility of another Lake Placid Olympics, only this one would be linked with New York City 288 miles to its south.
‘The Olympic flame belongs in New York,’ Hochul wrote on X. ‘We’re launching an Exploratory Committee to evaluate a future Winter Games that would unite Lake Placid’s storied Olympic history with the unmatched global stage of New York City.’
The Buffalo-born Democrat concluded the post by adding: ‘Let the games begin.’
Sports fans and New Yorkers are split over the idea, to say the least.
‘It would be a disaster,’ one critic wrote, calling it ‘a logistical nightmare far exceeding the organizational capabilities of ny democrats.’
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul are pictured at the Knicks parade
Andrew Heo of Team USA Speedskating visits the Empire State Building on March 24
Peggy Fleming, 20, who was World Figure Skating Champion three times and the only US skater to win a Gold Medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics, performs at Rockefeller Center
Some of the concerns offered were fairly practical in nature.
For starters, the next two Winter Games are already set for the French Alps in 2030 and a return to Salt Lake City in 2034.
As several critics wondered on X: ‘What is the purpose of exploring this now?’
The answer to that question could be linked to another concern about Lake Placid: The sleepy Adirondack town of 2,205 citizens is likely too small to host a modern Olympics.
‘This might be the dumbest thing you have ever come up with, and that list is long, but the Winter Games has outgrown what Lake Placid can support,’ one particularly cruel commenter wrote on X.
Many of the criticisms lobbed at Hochul referenced her renewable-energy initiatives in the area, but some objected to the idea of a Lake Placid-New York Winter Olympics due to the five-hour drive separating the two towns.
‘Lake Placid is no where (sic) near NYC,’ one critic wrote. ‘Stop showing how geographically challenged you are.’
Of course, that distance could offer an opportunity, as a few Hochul supporters pointed out on X.
‘Love this idea and couple it with a high speed train to the Adirondacks!’ one supporter added.
Lake Placid is the site of one of the most famous upsets in sports history, when Team USA beat the vaunted Soviet Red Army team during the 1980 Winter Olympics en route to a gold medal
The practice of awarding Olympic medals in a podium ceramony began in Lake Placid in 1932
But the vast majority of responses centered on the costs for taxpayers.
‘Please no,’ one critic wrote. ‘You’re spending taxpayer money like a drunken sailor. Stop funding stupid games and stadiums with our tax money, we’re broke!’
For what it’s worth, the Hochul administration is now eying a budget surplus in 2026. In February, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli explained that the annual budget deficit was eliminated by the state’s economic strength, ‘particularly on Wall Street.’
Whether Lake Placid gets a third Olympic Games, the town will always hold a special place in the event’s history.
The 1932 Winter Games are best remembered for the practice of awarding Olympic medals in podium ceremonies, which began in Lake Placid and continues to this day. And of course, the 1980 Lake Placid Games will always be known for the ‘Miracle On Ice’ – the US men’s hockey team’s unthinkable upset of the vaunted Soviet Red Army juggernaut.
