If Lake Placid becomes 2026 Olympic sliding site, New York's Rockefeller Center will be play big part

Picture this: A sliding athlete wins an Olympic medal in Lake Placid next winter, then is chauffeured down to New York for an award ceremony at Rockefeller Center a few days later with thousands of people there to cheer on both moments.

It could happen.

The element of incorporating New York into the Olympics is just one of the unique details inside Lake Placid's plan if the two-time Olympic host gets asked to be the site of the sliding events for next winter's Milan-Cortina Games, according to documents reviewed this week by The Associated Press. Lake Placid was picked as the just-in-case backup track last year, and with the Olympics less than a year away a decision could be looming on whether the Adirondack village will be called to serve once again.

"The most important thing is to give the athletes what they deserve, and that is a true celebration," said Ashley Walden, the CEO of the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which manages the Olympic venues in Lake Placid. "They've been working for it for four years. It needs to be bigger than the everyday race. That's the key to all of this. That's where New York City and the fanfare that we can offer, in addition to the race-night competition here, is crucial."

How and when the decision comes on where the sliding races will be is unclear. Every indication put forth by Italian organizers is that the rebuilding of the historic Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, will be done in time. But there is also a push for a definitive answer, especially with homologation — a fancy way of saying getting the necessary testing of the track done as part of the certifying process — set to begin in less than three weeks.

Simico, the Italian government agency in charge of