Developing sporting excellence

The USA’s elite athletes enjoy full-time training and sports science services in Lake Placid, where they can hone their skills and improve their performances to achieve success.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Lake Placid is home to four “resident sports” in bobsleigh/skeleton, luge, freestyle skiing and biathlon. It teams up with organisations such as the New York Ski Educational Foundation to deliver its training programmes. On-site training is also delivered to US athletes in boxing, canoeing/kayaking, judo, rhythmic gymnastics, rowing, artistic swimming, taekwondo, handball, water polo and wrestling. Used by community groups, the Center also welcomes athletes from other countries and runs an annual international sliding school, among other training programmes.

Many Olympians have passed through the Center, which has sent US athletes to every Olympic Winter Games since its creation. For example, 10 of the country’s 28 medal winners at Sochi 2014 trained there in preparation for the event, among them Lake Placid native Andrew Weibrecht, a silver medallist in the super-G.

The Center is also the headquarters of the Sports Science Division of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Organised into five departments (sport biomechanics, sport physiology, sport psychology, computer science and engineering technology), the division has been responsible for many innovations in the fields of sports science and medicine, including the use of video to analyse biomechanical aspects of sporting performance.

The Center’s healthcare staff includes chiropractors, therapists and trainers. Its sports science laboratory is equipped with sport-specific ergometers for canoe/kayak, biathlon, cross-country and speed skating, as well as a computerised system that scientifically evaluates athletes’ maximal oxygen uptake.