The James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink is an outdoor artificial ice track for

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marath ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

, United States (US). It hosted the speed skating events at the

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

(plus six of twelve

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

matches) and

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

. In the interim, it hosted Lake Placid High School football games.

History

The rink, which is located in the same area as Lake Placid High School, was built outdoors as a skating rink for 1932 Winter Olympics. Besides "speed drills", the arena was also used for the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, the starting- and end-point for cross-country skiing events and dog racing (demonstration branch), and ice hockey matches. The

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

section of the rink was capable of accommodating 7,500 spectators and was demolished following the end of the Winter Olympics. Two weeks after the 1932 Olympics, the 1932 World Allround Speed Skating Championship was held at the rink and the venue was subsequently reused for other sports. International skating competitions have not been held at the rink since the Olympics. When the city was awarded the

in October 1974, a artificial and more modern ice track was being constructed (which opened in late-fall 1977). The first international championship to be held at the new rink was the 1978 World Sprint Speed Skating Championship for women and men. During the 1980 Winter Olympics,

Eric Heiden Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14, 1958) is an American physician and a former long track speed skater, road cyclist and track cyclist. He won an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at th ...

won five gold medals and set a world record in the 10,000-meter event, with a time of 14.28,13—the only world record to have been achieved at the rink. The 1989 World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Women were the last world's championships held there.

References

1932 Winter Olympics official report.
pp. 147–50.
1980 Winter Olympics official report.
Volume 1. pp. 43–7.

External links

Info
{{Olympic venues in speed skating Speed skating venues in the United States Venues of the 1932 Winter Olympics Venues of the 1980 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey venues Olympic speed skating venues Sports venues in Essex County, New York Olympic stadiums 1932 establishments in New York (state) Sports venues completed in 1932 Indoor ice hockey venues in New York (state)