James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink

The James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink is an artificial ice track for speed skating in Lake Placid, New York. The arena hosted the speedskating events at both the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics. At the 1932 games, six of the twelve ice hockey matches. During the time between the Olympics, it hosted Lake Placid High School football games.^[1]

The rink, which is located in the area of Lake Placid High School, was built as a skating rink at the Winter Olympics in 1932. Besides speed drills, this was also an arena for the opening and closing ceremonies, the starting and destination for cross-country exercises and dog racing (demonstration branch), as well as some of the ice hockey matches. The Tribune, which had room for 7,500 spectators, was demolished after the Games were over.^[2]

Two weeks after the 1932 Olympics, the Allround World Championships were held on the same rink. In the years after the Olympics, the rink was reused for other sports. It was not held any international skating competitions here since the olympics.

When the city in 1974 was awarded the 1980 Winter Olympics, there was a in the process of building an artificial ice track in place. This was opened late autumn 1977, and the first international championship for the new rink was the Sprint World Championships for women the same season.

During the Olympic competition in 1980 when Eric Heiden won five gold medals and set a world record of the 10,000 m with 14.28,13 - the only world record that is listed on the court.^[3]

In 1989 the Allround World Championships for women were held here. Since then, it is not held international championships.

References

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

External links

• http://www.whiteface.com/activities/skating.php