LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Emily Sweeney is certain of having a home Olympics next winter.
The USA Luge veteran is marrying fellow luge athlete Dominik Fischnaller later this year. He’s from Italy. She’s an American who lives in Lake Placid. So, whether the sliding portion of the Milan-Cortina Games is in the Italian Alps or the Adirondack Mountains, they’ll have those comforts of home.
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“I want to see a track in Cortina. I would love to see that,” Sweeney said earlier this season as the luge schedule was winding down. “At the same time, the way I view it is my relationship gets a home Olympics either way. So, Dominik, Italian, Cortina is great for him. Lake Placid, great for me. Both are great. I’m looking at a home game for my relationship.”
It is the question that athletes from the three sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton and luge — are waiting to have answered: Cortina or Lake Placid? The Olympics are less than a year away and this would normally be the time when national teams are starting to get deep into preparations. But with the rebuilding project of the historic Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d’Ampezzo still not finished, though Italian officials insist everything is on schedule, it’s logical for teams to wonder what the answer will be.
“I can’t wrap my head around an Olympics being here,” U.S. men’s skeleton athlete Dan Barefoot said at this weekend's bobsled and skeleton world championships in Lake Placid. “I actually don’t even know how Lake Placid will handle it. It’d be insane.”
Lake Placid was announced late last year as the Plan B for sliding if the Cortina track isn’t finished in time. International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation president Ivo Ferriani said earlier this week that Lake Placid’s “tradition” was a key to the two-time Olympic host winning “the trust” needed to be picked as the backup site. He did not drop any hints on when a decision could be made.
The official stance in Lake Placid is this: We’re rooting for Cortina, but we’re ready to serve. That said, the village wants an answer.
“I really do think we’re sincere in saying that a really good experience for the Cortina Olympics would be for them to be able to have everything all at once, in one place, for the spectators, the coaches and the athletes,” Lake Placid Mayor Art Devlin said. “Because really, that’s what the Olympics is about. It’s kind of a chance for everyone to get together, talk, realize that they’re not as different as they think they are.”
There are pros and cons to events in Lake Placid. There will be separation from the “real” Olympics, which organizers in Lake Placid are trying to help soothe by coming up with a plan to incorporate New York’s Rockefeller Center as a big part of the celebration next winter. Some athletes may miss the opening or closing ceremony, though there are plans to help with travel for those in the sliding sports that want to be part of either of those events in Italy.
“The opening ceremony, it’s the most iconic moment of becoming an Olympian and going to the Olympics,” USA Luge women’s slider Summer Britcher said. “But I have done this three times and while it’s so incredible there’s always been a question in my head of if it’s the smartest thing for my performance to be standing and walking around for so long.”
If Lake Placid is the site, it would be an obvious edge for American sliders since they know their home track better than anyone else. Other tracks closer to Italy — like ones in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands and France — would come with serious home-ice advantages for other countries.
“On one end, I definitely want to be with the world and making memories. But on the other end, after all the blood, sweat, tears that we put in on a daily basis, the medal is what you're going to remember,” U.S. women’s bobsledder Kaysha Love said. “If it’s here, my family gets to be here. Not all of my family will get to go to Italy. It’s just far too expensive.
“I’m striving for a gold medal, an Olympic gold medal. And if that means that my better chances are here at home track, home ice, then that is the direction that I would love to see the Olympics go.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics