Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Lake Placid on Monday to tour some of the Olympic facilities as New York explores a bid to host the 2042 Winter Games.
The first stop on Hochul’s tour was the Olympic Museum. She looked over the collection of gold medals from previous games, greeted some visitors, and stopped to see the Olympic torch from the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Wearing a pair of white gloves, Hochul held up the torch and shared her lofty goal.
“My job is to bring the torch back with this incredible dream team," she said, pointing to local leaders and state lawmakers who joined her on the tour. "2042!“ Hochul exclaimed.
Last month, the governor created an Olympic exploratory committee to look into hosting the games between Lake Placid and New York City.
The snow and sliding sports could be held in the Adirondacks while the city could host arena events such as hockey and figure skating.
The next stop on the tour was the 1980 hockey rink, where the American men defeated the Soviets in a game that became known as the Miracle on Ice.
Lake Placid is currently hosting a women’s hockey tournament for the top players under the age of 18.
“This is an extraordinary place; it’s a magical place," said Hochul, "a place where miracles are made and where miracles will be made in the future.”
Speaking to some state lawmakers, local leaders and reporters, Hochul acknowledged the hurdles of hosting part of the games in Lake Placid, a town of about 2,200 people.
"We figure out the housing challenges, we figure out the infrastructure that has to be done with the roads in this area, work on linkages between New York City and the North Country, what that looks like.”
Hochul said that the recent Winter Games in Italy hosted between Milan and Cortina proved that splitting the games between a big city and a smaller mountain town can work.
State Assemblyman Robert Caroll was at the recent Olympics and said traveling between the two host locations was similar to what it would be like in New York.
"I took a train from Milan to outside of Venice and then I took a bus," Carroll explained. "The road from outside Venice to Cortina is a mountainous road that’s about one lane in each direction.”
Carroll represents part of Brooklyn, but has a second home in the Adirondacks. He said any bid to host the games up here will require a lot of public input over things like transportation and housing.
"The only way this would be successful in New York City or in Lake Placid is if we listen to local communities and we solve those problems.”
Ava McNaughton competed at the latest Olympics in Milan. She’s a goaltender for the women’s national hockey team, which just won gold in Italy. McNaughton said she saw the Italian city pivot after the Olympics.
"They were turning our housing into apartments for students after, and so I think a lot of those same principles could be used in what would be this 2042 Olympics.”
Lake Placid has hosted two Winter Olympics- first in 1932 and most recently in 1980. But the games are a lot bigger and more complicated than they were back then. About half a million tickets were sold for the 1980 games. At the latest Olympics in Italy, ticket sales were around 1.3 million.
McNaughton has her sights set on competing in the next Winter Games in the French Alps and maybe four years later in Salt Lake City. As for the 2042 Games, she says those athletes would be lucky to compete in Lake Placid.
"It would be an incredible honor to represent your country at any Olympics, and obviously it was," said McNaughton, "but to be able to be here and almost relive 1980 would be incredible.”
The exploratory committee will spend the next year evaluating the costs and benefits of hosting the games as well as the hurdles and challenges. Then, the state will decide whether to submit an official bid to the International Olympic Committee.