New York’s Empire State Winter Games to return in February

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — The Empire State Winter Games will return in February after a one-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The amateur winter sports competition will be held Feb. 3-6. Organizers expect around 2,000 athletes to participate at venues in Lake Placid and the surrounding Adirondack region.

“I’m excited that we’ll be able to have a full program,” Ashley Walden, CEO of the Adirondack Sports Council, said in a release. “Sports are very important towards the development of youth, and this is a highlight for young aspiring athletes, across the state and beyond.”

The Empire State Winter Games were founded in 1981 in the wake of the spectacular 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics and are billed as the largest annual multi-sport festival in the Northeast. This winter’s events include Alpine and Nordic skiing, Nordic combined, ski orienteering, ski jumping snowboarding, freestyle skiing and freeski, bobsled, luge, skeleton, figure skating, ice hockey, snowshoeing and winter biking. Adaptive sports include Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country skiing bobsled and sled hockey.

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