Ninety-five years ago, something special happened in Lake Placid on Christmas Day that still reverberates powerfully through our community.
That’s when the first bobsleds sped down North America’s first-ever sliding track built at Mt Van Hoevenberg. Since that historic day in 1930, our little village has been an international powerhouse in the sport. Today, as we prepare to welcome the world to the biggest sliding sport competition on the planet – the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation’s (IBSF) World Championships – we reflect on how our little village became home to an incredible legacy in bobsled, skeleton, and luge.
Ever Upward
New York State’s “Excelsior” motto, Latin for “Ever Upward,” was created to describe the state’s continuous striving toward excellence and our confidence in a strong, bright, and ever-better future. Lake Placid is a perfect fit for that motto, as this village has been moving “ever upward” in winter sports for more than 100 years. Today, in fact, after a once-in-a-generation series of revitalization projects that have lifted its Olympic venues to among the world’s best, there are more opportunities than ever in history for athlete development, major events, and a multitude of intangible rewards.
Vast numbers of people from around the area and around the world are now benefitting from Lake Placid’s remarkable Olympic legacy and our renewed Olympic venues. After surpassing a million visitors last year, expanding partnerships and programs, and hosting many extraordinary international competitions, this two-time Winter Olympic Games host continues moving ever upward.
Mt Van Ho Sliding Track History
After the 1932 Olympics, the original track at Mt Van Hoevenberg was shortened and made safer in advance of being the first track anywhere outside Europe to host the World Championships. Then again some decades later, a new track was constructed in advance of the 1980 Games and another again in 1999 to bring it once more up to international standards for all three sliding sports. In 2009, the new track became the first to host bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton World Championships, all in one non-Winter Olympic year.
With 26 turns in its just over one-mile-long descent of the mountain, Mt Van Hoevenberg’s combined bobsled, skeleton, and luge track is widely known as the most technically challenging track in the world. A regular host of World Cup events through many decades, Mt Van Hoevenberg has also previously hosted 11 bobsled and skeleton World Championships plus two International Luge Federation (FIL) World Championships.
Where Women’s Sliding Got Its Start
As historically significant as this track already is having hosted so many major international sliding events, it is also the birthplace of women’s sliding sports. During the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, Mt Van Hoevenberg’s facilities and programs were led by venue manager Susan Lavin, who at the time was an employee of the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation. In 1981, with the establishment of the Olympic Regional Development Authority, Susan initiated that summer a new Women’s Bobsled program. Paul Lamey, a former bobsled driver for the U.S. Navy, was hired as a program instructor for this first-of-its-kind program in the world. Though Susan never drove a bobsled, she rode in many during her tenure, championed women’s bobsled in Lake Placid, and helped shape sliding sports for women all over the world.
Home of Medalists in Summer and Winter
In other notable facts from the track’s long history, Mt Van Hoevenberg is also home to two bobsledding Hall of Famers who made their marks as the only U.S. athletes to medal in both the Summer and Winter Games. Twelve years after winning a gold medal in boxing, Eddie Egan added a gold medal in bobsledding at the 1932 Games in Lake Placid. Those games were his first and only bobsled competition in his career. Decades later, Willie Davenport, a track and field athlete in the 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976 Summer Games, qualified for the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, joining teammate Jeff Gadley as the first black American in U.S. Winter Games history.
The Flame Burns Brightly
Lake Placid holds a rich history and remarkable legacy across all Winter Olympic sports. Yet, the sliding sports of bobsled, skeleton, and luge have played an extra-large role in our community’s consistently bringing the world’s best to the Adirondacks for global competition. Through our two Winter Olympics and for many decades beyond, these sports have played a major role in keeping the Olympic spirit burning brightly here in Lake Placid.
The Lake Placid Legacy and the State’s ongoing commitment to managing, marketing, and maintaining what is among the world’s best facilities for sliding sports has been powerfully meaningful. In the process, it’s also contributed enormously to the overall impacts of international winter sport training and competition here in our community and to our ongoing visibility globally.
And now, in this vibrant new era with our renewed venues and global leadership roles in competition at all levels, in athlete development and training, and in recreation and tourism, we are excited to be welcoming back the world’s best as we host the biggest sliding sport competition on the planet – the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation’s World Championships.
Join us at Mt Van Hoevenberg for this major event March 6 through 9, and 15 and 16. In attending this pinnacle sliding sport competition, you will become part of this rich history in elite sliding sports. With over 300 athletes from a record-breaking 38 nations, this year’s competition – in advance of a potential Olympic sliding sport series next winter – promises to be a truly thrilling competition as athletes navigate this epic track at this amazing venue. Get event details and tickets here.