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By Peter Minde
MOUNT VAN HOEVEBERG, Lake Placid — You like it, but you don’t want to know how it’s made. As my late father would have said, tough bunnies. You’re gonna find out. The stories and the livestream rightly focus on skiers throwing down righteous performances. But there’s a lot happening in the background that doesn’t make the 6 p.m. news highlights.
National championships here made preparations for last spring’s SuperTour week look like the World Series versus sandlot baseball. Massive infrastructure in the start/finish area, including live video feed and a ginormous video display in the finish area. Over 10,000 people watched the livestream on each of the four days of competition. Snow fencing went up all over the lower part of the course. This was partly to keep tourists off the race trails, but also provided a dedicated, if restrictive, trail for spectators. Even if my janky knees would permit it, there didn’t seem to be any walking out to the remote parts of the 5km loop this week.
For the classic interval-start race, van Ho deployed every V-board they had. Going up to the top of the first climb, there was a start lane, a lap lane, and a coaches lane. V-boards denoted a glide testing lane, the first time I’d ever seen one. I’m told that this is best practice at JOQ races in Alaska. But Lake Placid is just a backwoods ski town that’s held two Olympics; what do we know.
Staging those V-boards was a process. The day after Christmas, in 1-degree (-17.2 C) weather, I volunteered to set up for the biathlon junior national championships. Among other things, a gray-haired crew hauled sleds loaded with V-boards from the 1980 lodge to the new stadium. One V-board doesn’t weigh much, but sled load after sled load… uff. Hauling one load, a biathlete skied past us and said, “Blah blah blah look at the old people.”
It takes a village to pull off a ski race
Catherine Leist is a project manager for the events department of Olympic Regional Development Authority, or ORDA. She took a few minutes to speak with Nordic Insights. In addition to foreign skiers representing NCAA colleges, she pointed out skiers from Mexico, Colombia, Haiti, and Taiwan, all chasing FIS points in hopes of an Olympic start this year or World Cup or World Championships starts in future years. There are also six youngsters (at my age, they’re all youngsters) on the Australian Skiroos development team.
Joseph Peng, of the Chinese Taipei Ski Association, made time for Nordic Insights after last week’s sprint qualification round. “I wasn’t born in Taiwan, but I was raised in Taiwan until I was 16,” said Peng. “I moved to British Columbia for two years of high school, and then I moved to the States this year for the University of Michigan.
“One of my friends [got me interested in skiing] when I was 12, and then he was in France with a training camp with our [Taipei] ski association, but they’re doing downhill skiing. And then I heard from him that our ski association is looking for cross-country skiing athletes. We had some athletes 30 years ago, and they want to restart the program.
“This is in Taiwan, yeah. And then there were trials I went to, got accepted, and then started my training, and a couple training camps in Canada as well.”
Situated in the far southeastern part of the state, University of Michigan [disclosure: I’m a Wolverine too, as is the editor-in-chief of this rag] is over 500 miles from Houghton and other ski centers in the Upper Peninsula. Peng does much of his training on a golf course with machine-made snow.
Insofar as racing internationally, Peng said, “My goal is to get other opportunities to race in the world championship, maybe some junior championships as well. But for our country, we have a rule. If you’re based outside of [Taiwan] and your FIS points are over 350, you’re not in consideration. So that’s why I’m here for this race, trying to get my FIS points under 350.” Skiers residing in Taiwan have no such requirement. Following the races in Lake Placid Peng’s distance points were down to 359, with a best single-race result of 337, so he’s getting close.
The western snow drought may have played into results for some skiers. “At Mount van Hoevenberg, it’s been a lot colder than many of our athletes are used to,” Leist said. “A lot of them are coming from out west. And [at the 10km classic] when they crossed the finish line and handed us their transponders, they’re telling us this is the coldest weather they’ve skied in all season.” Some required medical attention after the 10km classic last Monday.
Asked about the difference between the national championships and March’s World Cup Finals, Leist said, “I think [we’re] preparing a more robust spectator area. We have big plans for everybody that plans to join us, either from a spectator or a vendor side. We’re going to have a pretty wide, spread out vendor village that enters into the stadium.”
“So as you’re entering the venue, you’re kind of surrounded by all these different food options, different gear options, demos, tech, tech companies, things like that. Logistically, it’s very similar to the UCI mountain biking World Cup. [Mount van Hoevenberg has hosted a UCI mountain bike world cup the last two years.] And based on our success with that event, we’re looking to bring that to the winter. So basically, the excitement and the logistics of UCI on snow.”
As for the workload? Hanna Cromie, ORDA’s volunteer wrangler, has had a whopping one day off since Christmas Eve. She’s not alone in that regard. Another ORDA employee told me that as of 8 January, his last days off were the weekend following Christmas. He pointed out the heavy event schedule.
As national championships were happening, there was also the North American Cup bobsled and skeleton races on the sliding track. The following week brought World Cup aerials, moved 2,000 miles east from Deer Valley to the Olympic Jumping Complex due to arid conditions in the American West. Then there’s the Lake Placid Loppet citizens race, and an IBU Cup. We haven’t touched on events at the other venues ORDA manages.
Thoughts on development
Coaches Bryan Fish and Greta Anderson, both of whom work in development for U.S. Ski & Snowboard, kindly took time to answer possibly dopey questions.
Fish said, “I really appreciate from the teams, college, junior level and senior level, their collaboration and integration in having this be the biggest U.S. National event we’ve ever hosted. Close to 700 competitors. So to answer your question, what we’re trying to look for and out of our juniors is to be competitive with the seniors. When that happens, we know that they can probably be competitive at the junior world level.”
How does one know who to watch? Do you have a short list, or what?
“Not a short list,” Fish replied. “We try to keep our evaluation, and our projects, as broad-ranging at the younger ages as we can. Obviously, there comes a time where there’s selections required. So this is a selection event, and we only bring six U18 boys and girls and six U20 men and women to Junior Worlds. Really, what we’re trying to look at is we need to develop, and I think the U.S. has done a pretty good job of this, is creating a broad net. You know, the fact that we have 700 racers at U.S. Nationals shows that. So then it’s like, how do you sharpen them at the higher levels? So it’s doing both, right? It’s having a broad base, but also having a very strong, competitive level at the higher end.”
Asked the same question, Anderson replied, “There are some names that are more familiar and less familiar based on how long they’ve been racing, and which events they’ve been to in the past. But at this level, and this early age, we don’t have a lot of data points on them yet, right? And one can argue two points make a line, or that more data points over time tell us more. And so I’m looking at athletes — ones I know, obviously I’m revisiting seeing them. Ones I haven’t seen racing before, I’m seeing through new eyes. But we’re looking for that, and also movement patterns and trends.”
Movement patterns?
“Technique, and how fast their ground speed is. The clock is quite honest, so we always have that. But it’s nice to watch these racers and see the progression of like, how many of these juniors are quite competent, or have already some style set into how they’re jumpskating, and how that technique is starting to develop.”
Another Olympics in the future?
Lake Placid has hosted two Winter Olympics. Is a third in the future? Downstate assemblyperson Robert Carroll recently co-wrote an op-ed piece advocating a joint Lake Placid–New York City Winter Games with Billy Jones, a current ORDA board member and former legislator. The distance between Lake Placid and NYC is approximately the same as the drive from Cortina to Milano, and probably a quicker trip on the ground due to the absence of narrow mountain roads.
“The crowds will witness new miracles,” they wrote. “An NYC–Lake Placid Games would deliver record attendance, viewership and revenue. But the legacy would not end with the Closing Ceremony. Investments in public transit, housing, accessibility and youth sport would serve generations to come. A legacy fund could expand access to skating, skiing and adaptive winter sport programs across the state, ensuring that every child, regardless of zip code or background, can experience the exhilaration of movement and the joy of belonging.”
The authors’ intent is noble. But from here, the prose above is a touch airy. During his working life, your correspondent made a living handling the nitty gritty details that make the big ideas happen. The state has poured a lot of money into ORDA in the last few years. Is it enough for an Olympics?
Naj Wikoff, a columnist for the Lake Placid News, has a different take. A Lake Placid native, he raced on wooden skis way back when. Encouraged to take up biathlon, Wikoff demurred: “There was something called the Vietnam War going on.”
A Lake Placid–NYC Olympics would be “a good idea on multiple fronts,” Wikoff told me. “From the IOC standpoint, Lake Placid is one of the few places in the world they can see 50 years out and 75 years out as having the snow and the capacity to put on the events. A lot of places are running out. There’s Japan. You know, Europe is having real trouble in this area. So one from that standpoint, I think the IOC would like to have a smaller group of sites that they can rotate through. And the differences could be that certain events are held here, and other events could be held in Montreal or New York City or something like that. I think that the only feasible way of doing the Olympics is partnering with someplace else.”
The last Lake Placid organizing committee, for the “Miracle on Ice” 1980 Games, lost $8.5 million and declared bankruptcy. How would a future Lake Placid Winter Games avoid this same fate?
“The reason was because they didn’t understand the economic, the marketing value of the Olympics,” Wikoff explained. “ABC made a ton of money off of Lake Placid. The organizers for the L.A. Summer Games learned from that and charged the television companies a lot more. As a consequence, they didn’t lose money.
“There were some internal arguments [in Lake Placid]. There were some people that wanted to charge ABC more. But people had such a strong relationship with Roone Arledge, who was then the head of the ABC Sports. ‘Well, it’s our friend, Roone. We can’t do that.’ But I would say that one of the things that came out of that was learning that there was a lot more money to be made for the host. So it could have broken even, had they done that. But we’re all wise in hindsight. And one of the outcomes is we got the Olympic Regional Development Authority. [Founded after the 1980 Olympics, ORDA manages the local legacy sites: Mount van Hoevenberg, Whiteface Mountain, The Olympic Jumping Complex, and the Olympic Center and Museum in Lake Placid. Later, they took on Gore and Belleayre alpine ski centers.] The town of North Elba could not have kept up the venues without something like a state authority to take that on.”
Wikoff believes that Lake Placid’s experience hosting the 2023 FISU Games has prepared the town for the increased size of the Olympics. “We had substantially more athletes and coaches for the World University Games. Radically more athletes were in town than they were for the 1980 Games. The reality is, if we’re not hosting all the events, there’s a large chunk of those athletes who won’t even be in Lake Placid such as figure skating, as an example, short track speed skating, probably the hockey games. All that will probably take place someplace else. So you keep that in mind that the athletes that would be here would be more around the sliding sports, ski jumping and cross-country skiing. And Whiteface, of course.”
Will another Olympics happen here? At present, it’s difficult to say. The writers advocated for an exploratory committee that hasn’t yet been formed. There is also the potentially inconvenient detail that the Games will be in Salt Lake City in 2034, and the IOC has historically made the same country or region wait for some time before it can host the Games again. But in the words of the immortal Fats Waller, “One never knows, do one?”
World Cup Finals: Prepare for the big show
Are you planning to attend the World Cup Finals here starting 19 March, aka the Jessie Diggins Farewell Show? If you haven’t made lodging reservations yet, get cracking.
In an earlier report, we covered the best places to get coffee in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. For those coming from out of town, here are some restaurant recommendations. This is not an exhaustive listing. Some are fancy; some are down-home.
Lake Placid:
- Lisa G’s
- The Greeks ADK (rave reviews from athlete parents at nationals)
- White Bear
- Caffe Rustica — Italian
- Burgers and Pies
- Cascade Inn
- Heritage Indian Grill
- Big Mountain Deli
- Players
Saranac Lake:
- Blue Mountain — open until 2 p.m.
- Lakeside Drift
- Our Plates — Dominican cuisine. The real deal
- Hotel Saranac
- Left Bank Cafe
- Grizle-T’s and the Scullery (old school north country bar; your correspondent’s favorite haunt)
- Bitters ’n’ Bones
- Belvedere — Italian
Keene / Keene Valley:
- Noonmark Diner
- Restaurant 46
- Ice Jam Inn
Notable local breweries. Except for Prison City, these all have food:
- Lake Placid Pub and Brewery; Big Slide; RiverTrail Beerworks. These all have the same ownership. Differing beer offerings and menus. It’s probably easiest to get seated at RiverTrail.
- Ray Brook Brewhouse
- Prison City Brewing
- Blue Line Brewery
Are you going to be in a short term rental or a suite with a kitchen? Some Alaska parents who were here last week brought moose and salmon east with them. Green Goddess in Lake Placid and Nori’s in Saranac Lake are most excellent health food stores.
Looking forward to a great weekend of racing in March. Nordic Insights will most definitely be boots on the ground for World Cup Finals.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American skiing. We started with nothing and now we’re going to the Olympics. You can read more about our first three years here, and donate to the Olympics fund here. Thank you for consideration, and, especially, for reading.
