LAKE PLACID — The process to name a Plan B host site for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games sliding sports is ongoing with the state Olympic Regional Development Authority, according to ORDA Communications Director Darcy Rowe Norfolk.
Staff members from ORDA, which manage and operate the venues that would potentially be used, await further discussion with the Italian organizing committee for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games to discuss the detailed roles and responsibilities, on the chance that the Lake Placid-New York State bid is accepted as the Plan B option.
Lake Placid’s bid is one of just three other potential host sites, which also include St. Moritz, Switzerland and Igls/Innbruck, Austria, as Plan B options if the century-old sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo is not completed by March 2025.
A decision on the Plan B location will be verified by the Milan-Cortina Executive Committee in the first week of October. The International Olympic Committee is slated to accept a Plan B recommendation at the end of that month.
The Milan-Cortina Organizing committee officially signed a contract on Feb. 2 with Parma-based construction company Impresa Pizzarotti & C. to rebuild a century-old bobsled track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which closed in 2008. No modern sliding track has been built in such a short timeframe.
The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation president and chair of Winter Sports of the International Olympic Committee, Ivo Ferriani, told the Enterprise in June he feels confident that the Italian organizing committee for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina will deliver the track on time.
If the Lake Placid-New York State bid is accepted, and later activated, the proposed athlete’s village would be at Paul Smith’s College. Medal ceremonies would potentially take place in New York City.
Test events include the IBSF Bobsled and Skeleton World Championships in March 3 to 16, 2025, as well as an unofficial FIL Luge World Cup from Dec. 1 to 5, 2025.
The Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games will be held from Feb. 6 to 22, 2026. There are 16 disciplines across the three sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton and luge.