Top Winter Sports Action And Entertainment On Tap For Lake Placid During 2006-07 Season

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The two-time Winter Olympic village of Lake Placid, N.Y. will welcome many athletes from the Torino Winter Olympics as its yearly lineup of sports action continues, including World Cup events in bobsled, skeleton, freestyle skiing and snowboarding during the 2006-07 season. The schedule was released Tuesday by the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), managers of Lake Placid's 1980 Winter Olympic venues.

In addition, ORDA will offer the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, the Empire State Winter Games and the NCAA Women's Frozen Four, as well as entertainment shows such as Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, Smucker's Stars on Ice, Disney on Ice presents Monsters, Inc. and more.

"The beauty of Lake Placid coupled with an outstanding array of events and shows continues to make this village a most enticing vacation destiny," said Empire State Development Corporation Chairman and ORDA Chairman Charles A. Gargano. "It is this combination of assets, together with Governor Pataki's unwavering support of the Lake Placid Olympic venues, which will carry the region to further economic prosperity. The recent ORDA economic impact statement of $356 million statewide was staggering. It remains our mission to grow that number."

Added ORDA President and CEO Ted Blazer, "Lake Placid will continue to enhance its legacy of providing world-class sporting events and entertainment during the upcoming fall-to-spring season. We hope the diversity of activities will bring families and individuals to our beautiful area over the coming months. Lake Placid is a special place whose menu has activities that captivate. From the pulsating to the idyllic, it's all designed to create memorable experiences and significant economic impact on the Olympic region of Essex County."

World Cup bobsled and skeleton races will be held Dec. 14-17 on the mile chute at the Olympic Sports Complex located at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, headlined by Germany's two-man and four-man Olympic bobsled champion Andre Lange as well as United States Olympic silver medal-winning bobsledders Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming and 2005 World Champion skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace.

The Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, presented by Whelen Engineering, Jan. 4-7, brings a group of auto racing drivers to Lake Placid in a fundraiser for the United States bobsled teams. The likes of NASCAR's Geoff Bodine, Kevin Lepage and Boris Said are currently committed to drive modified bobsleds down the demanding Lake Placid course. The goal is to generate funds to further their research, development and construction efforts for new bobsleds. More drivers will be announced in the future. The U.S. National Championships will be held concurrently thus bringing the auto racing and bobsledding communities together.

World Cup freestyle skiing athletes will compete in the region Jan. 18-20 as part of their annual visit. It is expected that all four Olympic gold medalists will be in action. Dale Begg-Smith of Australia, who dominated the Whiteface Wilderness trail a year ago with two World Cup victories en route to Olympic moguls gold, should return to the Adirondacks as will Canadian Jennifer Heil, another reigning Olympic champion in the bumps event. Evelyne Leu of Switzerland and Xiaopeng Han of China, Olympic women's and men's gold medalists, respectively, in aerials, will launch themselves 50-60 feet in the air and perform their spinning twists. The USA's Jeret "Speedy" Petersen will join the aerials fray at the Kodak Sports Park in Lake Placid. American moguls skiers Hannah Kearney and Nate Roberts, reigning World Champions, can be expected to compete. 

World Cup snowboarding, a relative newcomer to the ORDA winter sports scene, will make its third stop at Whiteface in as many years March 10-11. The disciplines of halfpipe and snowboardcross (SBX) will be contested within easy proximity to the mountain's base. Olympic gold medalists likely to compete include "The Flying Tomato" Shaun White and Hannah Teter and in the halfpipe, with Seth Wescott in SBX. Also look for Torino silver medalists Gretchen Bleiler and Lindsey Jacobellis in halfpipe and SBX, respectively.

College hockey makes its return March 16-18 when the NCAA Women's Frozen Four will be contested in the famed 1980 Rink Herb Brooks Arena, site of the 1980 Miracle on Ice. This is where the top Division I women's hockey team will be crowned.

"We have been blessed with a very ambitious schedule of events," said ORDA Director of Events Jim Goff. "Elsewhere, the season immediately following a Winter Olympics can sometimes be a quiet one. Not here, however. We have to thank the national and international sports federations that continue to place their faith in our community as a host site for their respective competitions."

Other season event highlights will include seven performances of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus Oct. 6-9 in the Olympic Center; the Flaming Leaves Festival with ski jumping, aerial skiing and live musical entertainment Oct. 7-8; Smucker's Stars on Ice Nov. 25 in the Olympic Center; the Lake Placid Loppet cross country ski races Feb. 10; Disney on Ice presents Monsters, Inc. Feb. 15-19; the Empire State Winter Games Feb. 23-25 and the Snoe.down Jam Fest March 23-25.

Looking to the future, ORDA and Lake Placid will present the 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Hockey Championships; 2008 International Luge Federation (FIL) World Junior Championships; 2009 FIBT Bobsled and Skeleton World Championships and 2009 FIL Luge World Championships. Additional World Cup action is anticipated to accompany these events yearly.

For more information on ORDA venues and events, and for web cams from five locations, please log on to www.whitefacelakeplacid.com.