
The 2026 Winter Olympics Backup Plan Is Upstate New York?
The Olympic Games in Upstate New York?
The 1980 Olympics gave us The Miracle on Ice, the first use of artificial snow in Olympic games, and a raccoon for a mascot.
It'll be 45 years this February and feels like two lifetimes ago. Many of you reading this were not even born when the world's greatest winter athletes convened in upstate New York for the XIII Games.
The Olympic games have evolved and grown so much over the last few decades that it's hard to fathom holding the actual Winter Olympic Games in Upstate New York, but we did. And the 1980 games played in Lake Placid were exciting, thrilling, and memorable, but could that happen again 46 years later?
Lake Placid is the Backup Site for the 2026 Winter Games
While it seems highly unlikely, Lake Placid, New York, is the "Plan B" host site for the 2026 Winter Games scheduled to be played in Italy in 2026 - and there is an outside chance it could happen.
According to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, "If the century-old Italian sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo is not completed by March 2025, said state Olympic Regional Development Authority Communications Director Darcy Rowe Norfolk."
As Plan B options, the Lake Placid-New York state bid was chosen over two other potential host sites — St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Igls/Innsbruck, Austria, but what's the likelihood of the Italian site not being ready?
Will Italy Be Ready?
The Adirondack Daily Enterprise says that the "Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee is “confident” that the Italian track will be completed on time," and The Associated Press reported last month that the "Cortina Sliding Centre is progressing quickly and has begun to take shape."
So, while it seems unlikely, it's pretty cool that New York State is even being considered for such an honor. But despite having hosted the Olympic games before, a lot has changed in the 40-plus years since the Americans upset the Russians in the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid.
And it might take an even bigger miracle for the Winter Olympics to return.
Relive the moments with seldom-seen photos from the 1980 Winter Olympics, February 13th-24th, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York.
Images from the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, NY
Gallery Credit: Brian Cody TSM
No One Would Believe This is an Upstate Ballpark Where Legends Played
Gallery Credit: [Photos by Doug Kerr (CC BY-SA 2.0) – No Changes Made]