International University Sports Federation (FISU) secretary general and chief executive Eric Saintrond has confirmed that there is interest from Lake Placid in staging the 2023 Winter Universiade.
The village in New York City hosted the 1972 edition and went onto host the Winter Olympic Games eight years later.
Saintrond confirmed that 10 representatives from Lake Placid took part in the FISU observer program held in Almaty as part of the 2017 Winter Universiade.
“They would like to bid again for the Winter Universiade,” he told insidethegames.
Among those present was village Mayor Craig Randall, who was reported as saying by the Adirondack Daily Enterprise that the scale of the event officials are thinking of bringing to Lake Placid is near-Olympic level.
He was joined in Almaty by Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism chief executive Jim McKenna, North Elba town councilman Jay Rand, business owner Art Lussi, Adirondack Foundation chief executive Cali Brooks and Clarkson University vice-president of external relations Kelly Ogden-Chezum.
The delegation held discussions with FISU and members of the Almaty 2017 Organizing Committee regarding the Athletes’ Village, financing, marketing rights, minimum hosting requirements and venue operations.
“I think all things considered we carried ourselves off in very good stead, and it was a very comfortable meeting,” Randall told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
McKenna said prior to the trip that a bid could potentially be submitted to FISU by the end of next summer.
The 2019 Winter Universiade is due to take place in Russian city Krasnoyarsk, while the 2021 edition is set to be hosted by Lucerne in Switzerland.
The 1972 event in Lake Placid marked the only time United States has hosted the Winter Universiade.
It has also staged the Summer Universiade once, in Buffalo, New York in 1993.
By Daniel Etchells
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.