Lake Placid

Lake Placid, a village of approximately 2,500 people in Essex County in the Adirondacks of New York, is the only American municipality to have hosted the Winter Olympics twice — in 1932 and 1980. The 1980 Games produced one of American sports' defining moments when the United States hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in the semifinal, a victory known as the Miracle on Ice, before going on to win the gold medal. The Olympic venues built for those games remain active and are managed by the Olympic Regional Development Authority: Whiteface Mountain ski resort, 11 miles from the village, provides 3,430 feet of vertical drop, the greatest in the eastern United States. The Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg operates public bobsled rides from October through March — passengers join a pilot and brakeman for a 55-mph descent of the 1980 Olympic bobsled track, a genuinely thrilling experience available to the public. The cross-country ski and biathlon range at the same complex includes groomed trails used by international racing teams in training. The village of Lake Placid sits between Mirror Lake — a long, narrow mountain lake with a public beach, boat rentals, and a 10-kilometer circumnavigation path — and the larger Lake Placid itself. The Olympic Museum on Main Street presents the history of both Games through equipment, medals, and extensive archival footage. The Adirondack High Peaks surround the village, with the trailhead for Mount Marcy — New York's highest summit — located about 30 minutes from the center by car.