(LAKE PLACID, NEW YORK) - When the aging site of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, N.Y., needed modernizing, the officials who oversee the sports complex knew they could trust the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from Watertown Local 910.

"This was the first major upgrade there since 1980,” said Local 910 Business Manager Travis Flint of the recently-completed project. “We helped the whole place get to modern international sporting standards.”

Lake Placid was the home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics and most of the buildings on the site were built for the 1980 games, said Local 190 Assistant Business Manager Dave Hoover.

The sites “had only been lightly touched” since then, he said, with routine electrical maintenance handled by Local 910 Members.

Olympic venues often are torn down or abandoned afterward because it can be expensive to maintain facilities that aren’t expected to be used much again, if ever.

Following the 1980 games, though, U.S. Olympic Officials and other organizations kept using the Lake Placid campus as a training center focusing on Winter sports like bobsled, luge and skiing.

Over the past several years, to attract athletic events to Lake Placid, New York State has invested more than $600 million to modernize the sports campus.

The strategy began to pay off in 2018 when the International University Sports Federation selected this Village of 2,300 year-round residents as host of the 2023 World University Games.

The biennial, 11-day competition was set to gather nearly 1,400 students representing 46 countries - the largest collection of athletes in Lake Placid since the 1980 Games.

For nearly two years leading up to the University Games, about 60 Local 910 Electricians and Apprentices, plus some Travelers, worked with Signatory Contractors to help install new snow-making and ice-making systems, ice-melting mats for stairs and walkways, and a chair lift.

“We were under a high-stress and tight timeline,” Hoover said. “One of the hardest things for us was that the site had to remain open for tourists and spectators while we worked.”

On this State-managed job, which was covered by a Project Labor Agreement (PL), Local 910 Members also upgraded lighting systems and electrical panels in buildings such as the Herb Brooks Arena, the site of the 1980 Olympics’ “Miracle On Ice.”

This “miracle” took place on February 22nd that year, when the Men’s Hockey Teams from the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the heavily favored defending champion, competed in the semi-final medal round.

As the third period wound down and the U.S. Team battled successfully to hold on to its hard-fought 4-3 lead, ABC-TV Sportscaster Al Michaels exclaimed: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

The U.S. went on to win the Gold Medal, beating Finland in the final.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: No 'Miracle' Needed: N.Y. Electricians Ably Update Olympic Venue (ibew.org)

Graphic Courtesy Of IBEW Local 910's Facebook Page.