The 1980 U.S. Olympic figure skating team dazzled the crowd and competition judges en route to Charles Tickner’s bronze medal in men’s figure skating and Linda Fratianne’s Olympic women’s singles silver medal.
A 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Figure Skating Reunion Gala has been set for Tuesday, February 18th at the Lake Placid Olympic Center. » Continue Reading.
When I’m skiing or skating across a pond, I observe the shoreline, surrounding hills, islands, maybe a woodpecker or blue jay winging its way to the opposite shore. I look up at the sky, the clouds, swirling snowflakes. But there is a world beneath my feet that I don’t see, in what Henry David Thoreau called “the quiet parlor of the fishes.”
Beneath a layer of ice up to three feet thick, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and tiny invertebrates are going about their winter business. For most of these creatures, this means slowing their metabolism down to survive with reduced light and oxygen. They move less, eat less, and breathe more slowly than in warmer months. » Continue Reading.
The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee has introduced a new event called Skate Lake Colby. The event will be held on Sunday, February 3 at the Lake Colby beach and Skate Path.
It will offer ice skating paths and a fat bike trail. » Continue Reading.
The best long track junior skaters in the country are set to compete in the U.S. Long Track Junior Championships at the historic James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink in Lake Placid, January 18-20.
At stake is a spot on the U.S. Long Track Junior World team that will compete at the ISU Long Track Junior World Championships in Baselga, Italy, February 15-17. » Continue Reading.
Lake Placid is preparing to host the 8th International Children’s Games (ICG) in its Adirondack village, January 6-11, 2019.
Welcoming athletes from over 40 cities and 15 countries to the Olympic region, participants will compete in nordic and alpine skiing, snowboarding, speed skating, ice hockey and figure skating. » Continue Reading.
The North Atlantic Regional Figure Skating Championships are returning to the Lake Placid Olympic Center from October 17 to 21, 2018. » Continue Reading.
The Long Lake Geiger Arena Adirondack Skating Rink is now open with attendant Sam Keller maintaining the ice and manning the rink.
The Geiger Arena is an outdoor ice skating rink at Mt. Sabattis Recreation Area located at 6 Pavilion Way off of NYS Route 30 in Long Lake, across from the Long Lake Post Office. The rink offers free figure and hockey skates for visitors. Sleds are also available to enjoy the Mt. Sabattis sledding hill. Enjoy snacks, hot chocolate and play a game of foosball while you warm up in the skating hut. » Continue Reading.
Skating out into Bolton Bay, Ted Caldwell stops to lift a custom-made, kite-shaped canvas sail rigged to ash spars jointed where the mast and boom cross. He hoists it above his head, then brings it down so that the boom rests on his shoulder. Tilting the sail into the wind, he moves off with a steady glide. Within minutes, Caldwell himself is barely visible, a swiftly moving swatch of white canvas against Dome Island.
This is what we observed a few years ago, when a long, hard freeze and little snow produced 2 ½ weeks of black ice, the ideal conditions for skating, ice boating and skate sailing. » Continue Reading.
U.S. Figure Skating has announced the selection of Lake Placid as the host city for 2017 Skate America. Competition is scheduled for November 24-26, 2017, and will be held at the historic 1980 Herb Brooks Arena.
Lake Placid, which hosted the inaugural Skate America in 1979, has put on the event four times (1979, 1981-82, 2009). The state of New York has hosted Skate America six times. U.S. Figure Skating is expected to work with the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) to plan the event. » Continue Reading.
The Annual Lake Placid Figure Skating Championships took place in late June at the Olympic Center, bringing approximately 400 skaters from six countries to Lake Placid. The competition took place in the 1932 and 1980 arenas and was open to the public for a small admission fee, allowing visitors the opportunity to watch the figure skating events live.
This year, there were six countries represented in the competition as a whole, several of which were in the Senior Ladies category alone. » Continue Reading.
A new permanent exhibit sped into the Lake Placid Olympic Museum on May 23rd that celebrates one of the original Lake Placid winter sports — speed skating.
“Quest for Speed” features various displays explaining the history of the sport and its origins and impact in Lake Placid. Skaters profiled included local Olympic stars Charles Jewtraw and Jack Shea, and of course Wisconsin-native Eric Heiden, who won an unparalleled five gold medals at the 1980 Olympic Games. Museum director Alison Haas interviewed several champions in the sport to research the exhibit, in one case traveling to Salt Lake City to interview Eric Heiden. » Continue Reading.
Last night, the floodlights were on at my favorite skating lake. Several children wearing plastic skates and shiny helmets were gliding on the ice, shepherded by young parents. A father pulled a Nordic-looking sled with upturned runners, his bundled-up cargo insisting, “More!” each time he stopped. They were enjoying one of winter’s greatest gifts: the smooth, frozen surfaces of our northern lakes and ponds.
The gift is ephemeral. Some winters, our skates never leave the basement. Other years, the snow holds off and there’s black ice before Christmas. We skate as much as we can, knowing our days of clear ice are numbered. As winter progresses, rain may turn the surface to water — but the temperature plummets again and the resurfaced plane draws us back. » Continue Reading.
The sport of Figure Skating has changed quite a bit in the past decades. Now, the inaugural World Figure Championship & Figure Festival from August 25-29 in Lake Placid is poised to create a new skating history.
Before 1990, figures were recognized as the essential component of figure skating in both training and competition. Figures are also known as school figures, or colloquially “patch”, to represent the patch of ice each skater was allotted to practice their figures. During practice, skaters would use “scribes”, metal devices that resemble a large protractor, to imprint into the ice the outline of a perfect circle. The skater would then follow the imprint on the ice by tracing the pattern with their blade. » Continue Reading.
The 8th annual “Skate into New Year” skating party on the Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Lake Placid will benefit the Lake Placid Food Pantry. The event will be held on December 31st from 10:30 pm until 12:30 am.
“Skate into New Year” began in 2008, the brainchild of Christie Sausa, a local skater who responded to comments that there was “nothing for families to do” in Lake Placid on New Year’s Eve. The substance-free family-friendly event has donated thousands of dollars to charity in the past eight years. » Continue Reading.
Skating off the beaten track brings a sense of freedom to my soul. No matter how cold it is outside, I will haul my family to frozen ponds to lash skates to their feet. I know the Adirondack chill will be driven out with a few swift glides on the ice.
I often go far afield from Saranac Lake in search of places to skate, such as along the shores of Lake Champlain and Lake George, and I always ask people to share their favorite skating spots. More often, though, I am drawn to a stretch of Route 73 between Lake Placid and Keene Valley known for its consistent ice. » Continue Reading.
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