Milan and Cortina are a few hours apart like New York and Lake Placid. Some see an Olympic blueprint
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Imagine: A sprawling world-class city and a small mountain village with a rich Olympic history, separated by about five or six hours, collaborate and play host to a truly dual-host Winter Games.
Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo pulled it off.
And some wonder if New York and Lake Placid could do the same.
To be clear, this is no more than an idea, a dream, a hope at this point. But New York state Assemblyman Robert Carroll, who came to Italy for the Milan Cortina Games, is fully convinced that such an undertaking could work in the Empire State — and is even starting to map out how New York and the two-time Olympic host village of Lake Placid might pull it off.
“I think the Italians pulled it off spectacularly,” Carroll said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I was in Milan earlier this week, took public transit to get to Cortina, and I had a fantastic time in both places. I think this is clearly the model.”
Carroll was among a group of athletes and officials — International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation President Ivo Ferriani and Lake Placid Deputy Mayor Jackie Kelly among them — who were at a reception in Cortina d’Ampezzo this week. The event was put together to celebrate the friendship between Lake Placid and Cortina, two mountain towns that now are in the extremely small club of multiple-time Winter Games hosts.
Talk turned to the future, and the prospects of a Lake Placid Olympics again one day. The Games have grown far too big for the Adirondack village to host on its own like it did in 1932 and 1980, hence the notion of having New York be involved as well.
“I hope you will succeed very soon — New York and Lake Placid together,” Ferriani told the group, drawing plenty of applause.
The earliest such an idea could conceivably become reality is 2042. France is set to play host to the next Winter Games in 2030, followed by Salt Lake City in 2034, and Switzerland seems like a lock for 2038.
Lake Placid has seen a renaissance in recent years, with many of its venues — such as the sliding and biathlon facilities at Mount Van Hoevenberg, and the Olympic Center with its three ice rinks including the one that saw the U.S. hockey team upset the Soviet juggernaut in the famed “Miracle on Ice” game in 1980 — having been upgraded, thanks to more than $500 million in state funding. Gov. Kathy Hochul has called keeping Lake Placid relevant on the world sports stage a top priority. And the group that manages such facilities, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, is a state agency.
“Gov. Hochul’s investment in the Lake Placid legacy sites and making them state-of-the-art means that I think New York City and Lake Placid are poised not just to host the Games, but to host a highly sustainable Games and a financially prudent Games,” Carroll said.
The notion of another Olympics in Lake Placid — either on its own or in collaboration with New York or even Montreal — has been discussed on some level for decades, though it’s never gone very far.
The closest Lake Placid has gotten to playing host to the Games again came last year, when it was the official backup choice by the International Olympic Committee to host the sliding events for the Milan Cortina Games. Lake Placid was going to be called upon if Italian officials didn’t get the process of rebuilding the historic Eugenio Monti track in Cortina done in time. Lake Placid routinely hosts World Cup events and world championship races, and the massive investment by state officials was a major part of the World University Games coming to the Adirondacks in 2023.
“Winter sport in Lake Placid is not simply something we talk about,” Kelly said. “It is who we are and how we serve the global winter sport community.”
Carroll’s vision goes like this: Lake Placid could play host to sliding, skiing, ski jumping and more, since it has those venues in place. And New York could have hockey and figure skating at Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center, maybe turn Citi Field or Yankee Stadium into a venue for big air events, find a way to have speedskating at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
It would be just like Milan and Cortina. Olympic hubs five hours apart, a major city and a mountain village. For years, many thought such an idea would never work. These Olympics, Carroll said, debunk that notion for good.
“Italy is an amazing place,” Carroll said. “They have amazing hospitality. You may never be able to beat the beauty of the Dolomites. Those might be the most beautiful mountains in the world. And you may not be able beat the greatness of the food and drink of Italy. But I think the infrastructure, the state-of-the-art infrastructure that we have in New York City and Lake Placid, is unmatched and unrivaled. And I think that New York City, the media and financial capital of the world, is unrivaled. I think we can stand on the shoulders of a giant and do something special.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics