The Ironman event at Lake Placid is the second oldest Ironman in North America and one of the most popular events in the sport. A unique course with the transition and finish line located on the Olympic Speed skating Oval, a beautiful swim in Mirror Lake, a challenging bike through the Adirondacks, and an equally challenging run. Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638. The Village of Lake Placid is near the center of the Town of North Elba, 52 miles (84 km) southwest of Plattsburgh. Lake Placid, along with nearby Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake, comprise what is known as the Tri-Lakes region.
Lake Placid was founded in the early 19th century to develop a mining operation based on iron ore discovered nearby. By 1840, the population of "North Elba" (four miles southeast of the present village near where the road to the Adirondack Loj crosses the Ausable River) consisted of six families. In 1845, Gerrit Smith arrived in North Elba and not only bought a great deal of land around the village, but granted large tracts to former slaves, reforming the land law and reflecting his support of Abolitionism.
Lake Placid is best known as the two-time site of the Winter Olympics, in 1932 and 1980. In the United States, the village is especially remembered as the site of the 1980 USA–USSR hockey game the Miracle on Ice, when a group of American college students and amateurs upset the heavily favored Soviet national ice hockey team 4–3 and two days later won the gold medal. The victory is often ranked as the greatest in American sports history. It is also the site of the Olympic Oval, where Eric Heiden won his five Olympic gold medals.
Since 1999 it has been a site for the annual Ironman Triathlon, the second oldest Ironman in North America and one of only eight official Ironman Triathlons to be held in the continental U.S. Lake Placid is well known among winter-sports enthusiasts for its skiing, both Alpine and Nordic. Whiteface Mountain (4,867 ft/1,483 m), in nearby Wilmington about 13 miles (21 km) from Lake Placid, offers skiing, hiking, gondola rides, and mountain biking, and is the only one of the High Peaks that can be reached via an auto road. The area has one of only sixteen bobsled runs in the western hemisphere, and is one of the few places in the contiguous United States which offers dogsled and sleigh rides - see Lake Placid Sleigh Rides.
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