Effect of the 1980 Winter Olympics

In 1980, Lake Placid hosted the XII Winter Olympic Games. Although the Games may best be known for the U.S. Men’s Hockey team’s stunning upset of the Soviet squad (and eventual capture of the Gold medal), the Games significantly affected the Adirondacks in general, and the High Peaks region specifically. The Games had an enormous economic, environmental, and cultural impact on the region, effects that began as soon as the International Olympic Committee announced that the United States – and Lake Placid – had won the rights to host the 1980 Winter Olympiad.

As soon as the announcement was made, lodging, restaurant, and other hospitality businesses bought land and built new facilities and upgraded old ones to accommodate the expected influx of spectators. This dramatically drove up real estate prices, increased employment and wages, and sparked an economy that usually does not see much tourism in the dead of winter. For example, employees were hired to build the arenas, staff events, provide security, and maintain the both the Olympic venues and hotels and restaurants. Further spurring economic development, the United States Olympic Committee decided to build a permanent Winter Training Center by the lake (in large part because of the success of the 1980 Games). Although the 1980 Games certainly helped the regional economy immediately, the media’s coverage of both the Games and the state of the art facilities that were built to host them (and to lodge and feed both athletes and spectators) have enabled the region to remain prosperous in the 35 years since the Games ended. The widespread television coverage of the 1980’s Games showed Lake Placid’s beauty to the much of the nation while the added facilitates have provided athletes (Olympic, professional, and amateur) with areas to practice their skills and to compete in regularly scheduled events. As a result tourism has almost doubled in the region since the Games occurred.

Nevertheless, despite all the economic benefits that the Games brought (and continue to bring), these benefits did not come without negative social, cultural, and environmental costs as the Games led to a tremendous increase in the human activity in the largest publically protected area in the U.S. The added tourism has disrupted a quiet region, and increased traffic, congestion, and pollution of the air and water. Protected land has been converted into arenas and resorts, creating a miniature metropolis out of what used to be a small town. The negative consequences of that human activity continue to show the ever-long struggle between economic gains and environmental degradation, creating an outcome that is still debated.

In the final analysis, some people believe the Games were as much a curse on the region’s character as they were a cure for the region’s pre-existing economic woes. As a singer of the period once lamented above mankind’s ability to disrupt and degrade the things we claim to cherish most: “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Reilly, Kimberly. "The Olympics' Impact on Lake Placid." Adiorndack Almanack 
     (2014): n. pag. Print.