Empire State Winter Games

The 46th annual Empire State Winter Games run February 5 through 8, 2026, across Lake Placid and four surrounding Adirondack communities: Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Wilmington, and Paul Smiths. The Games are the largest Olympic-style multi-sport winter event in the northeastern United States, organized through a partnership between the Adirondack Sports Council and the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority, with an expected field of nearly 2,800 athletes competing across more than 20 winter sport disciplines. The opening ceremony returns to the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena at the Lake Placid Olympic Center on Thursday February 5 at 7 PM, the same ice surface where the United States hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in what remains one of the most referenced moments in the history of American sport.

The Sports Program Across Five Communities

Lake Placid hosts the densest concentration of events, including Adaptive Bobsled, Ski Orienteering, Cross Country Skiing, Figure Skating, Biathlon, Luge, Short Track Speed Skating, Skeleton, and the 2026 USA Triathlon Winter Triathlon National Championship on the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Nordic trail system, the same network currently used by US national team Nordic skiers preparing for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington hosts Freestyle Moguls, Adaptive Alpine, Ski Cross, and Snowboard Cross. Saranac Lake hosts the 10U, 12U, and 14U Ice Hockey tournaments. Tupper Lake hosts Sled Hockey at the Tupper Lake Civic Center. Paul Smiths hosts additional Cross Country Skiing events. The 2026 Games introduce bowling to the lineup, joining curling, which debuted in 2025, reflecting the Games’ intentional broadening of its eligibility beyond traditional winter Olympic sports. Registration is open to athletes beyond New York State, and most sports welcome all skill levels.

If You’re Going With Kids: The Luge track at Mt. Van Hoevenberg offers one of the few places in North America where spectators can watch sliding sports at close range, with the compressed geometry of the track and the audible sound of sleds through the banked turns producing a visceral impact that television coverage does not convey. Children aged 8 and older who attend the Luge event specifically, rather than attempting to cover multiple venues across the weekend, will remember it for years. The Figure Skating events at the Olympic Center’s indoor rinks are the warmest and most weather-independent spectator experience in the Games calendar.

Lake Placid: The Village That Cannot Stop Being Interesting

Lake Placid is a small Adirondack village of approximately 2,500 year-round residents that has hosted two Winter Olympics, 1932 and 1980, and sustains a sports culture and infrastructure entirely disproportionate to its population. Lake Placid (the lake itself) and Mirror Lake sit within walking distance of the Olympic Center, and Mirror Lake freezes reliably enough each January to support skating on its village-bordered surface, producing one of the more charming winter scenes in the American northeast. The Main Street corridor of independent restaurants, gear shops, and sports-oriented businesses operates at full capacity through the Games weekend, and lodging books out quickly once the Games dates are confirmed each fall. For families making the Empire State Winter Games a full Adirondack weekend, Lake.com lists vacation rental options across the Lake Placid and surrounding Adirondack region that provide the space and kitchen facilities that a multi-sport, multi-venue event weekend genuinely requires.