Lake Placid met with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in Houston, bringing it closer to being the U.S. representative to host the 2012 Youth Olympic Games.
Sandy Treadwell, chair of the state-sponsored Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Committee said, “being in Houston was an important step in advancing the first Youth Olympic Games”.
The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports that young athletes from around the globe train in bobsledding, luge, skiing and almost every other type of winter sport in Lake Placid. If the 2012 Youth Olympic Games were held in Lake Placid and the region, including the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in Wilmington, an estimated 1,000 athletes and 580 officials would take part in the high-level competition.
Jim McKenna, president of the Lake Placed/Essex County Visitors Bureau said, “it’s a never-before-held event, and Lake Placid has facilities that are probably in better shape than (at) the Olympic Games. It will be a prestigious event with global media attention and exposure, with world promotion that doesn’t happen very often in a place like this in the Adirondacks”.
With Chicago bidding to host the 2016 Summer Games organizers suggest a Youth Olympics in Lake Placid in the winter of 2012 would complement Chicago’s bid.
Treadwell said, “the Youth Olympic Games would be a positive addition to the Chicago bid”, reports the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. She adds, “it would give a positive focus on youth and fitness, and a successful youth winter Games in Lake Placid would be a good step to 2012”.
