LAKE PLACID, N.Y. --- The 10-race para-bobsleigh World Cup series kicks off its North American swing when Lake Placid, N.Y. plays host to more than 24 athletes from 14 nations, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 6-7. The 2019-2020 series began, in early-December, in Lillehammer, Norway and has traveled through Oberhof, Germany and St. Moritz, Switzerland before returning to the famed Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex Track.

Para-Bobsleigh athletes compete on their own in specially designed ‘monobobs.’ Both men and women race against each other. The athletes who slide Thursday and Friday will take two-race runs, each day, on the famed Mt. Van Hoevenberg track, trying to clock the fastest time down the mile-long chute.

Last Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 24-25, in St. Moritz, Latvia’s Arturs Klots and Great Britain’s Corie Mapp shared World Cup victories. Mapp’s victory, his fourth of the season, on Saturday, helped him to extend his World Cup lead over Klots to 105 points. Canada’s Lonnie Bissonnette sits in third place with 1,195 points, just two points shy of second place overall.

Training Tuesday through Wednesday is slated to begin at 10 a.m. each day. Racing on Thursday and Friday also gets underway 10 a.m. both days.  Admission at the gate for adults is $9, while a single-day ticket for juniors and seniors is $7. Children 6 and under are free.

Following Lake Placid, the series travels to Park City, Utah for the final two races of the season.

For more information about all of the events and activities on ORDA’s Olympic venues, visit www.WhitefaceLakePlacid.com.

-- ORDA --

Established in 1982, the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) was created by the State of New York to manage the facilities used during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid. ORDA operates Whiteface, Belleayre and Gore Mountain ski areas; the Olympic Sports Complex at Mt. Van Hoevenberg; the Olympic speed skating oval, Olympic jumping complex and Olympic arena. As host to international and national championships, the Authority has brought millions of athletes, spectator and participants to the region, resulting in significant economic development.