B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Visits Lake Placid’s Olympic Venues, Meets Olympians and Future Olympic Hopefuls and Highlights New York’s[...]

Governor Kathy Hochul today visited Lake Placid's Olympic venues where she met with Team USA athletes, national team members and the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls. The visit showcased how New York's Olympic venues support elite athlete training, international competition, community recreation and year-round tourism while highlighting the first major events of the Olympic Regional Development Authority's 2026-2027 season.

B-ROLL of the Governor visiting Lake Placid's Olympic venues is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Happy to be here with our Olympians - future, current, past, present. I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for joining us here today. This is an extraordinary place. It's a magical place. It's a place where miracles are made and miracles will be made in the future.

I want to thank the number of people who've been here with us today. Joe Martens, the ORDA Board Chair and former DEC Commissioner. Joe - Joe is really popular here. That was a special Joe horn. Chad Cassidy, the Vice President of Legacy Sites, has been giving us our tour here and working on this. Assemblymember Michael Cashman, who's been a great, great champion for the North Country. Assemblymember Robert Carroll, Bobby Carroll, who's very, very, very interested in our efforts to bring the Olympics here in 2042. Mayor Art Devlin in the village of Lake Placid. Supervisor Rick Preston from North Elba. Jackie Kelly, our Deputy Mayor. And Billy Jones, former Assemblymember. And - Chad, introduce our coach and who we have here today.

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I just wanted to show off John - that John is here. He's the coach of the Olympic gold winning team, their women's hockey team. We're so proud of them. I'm just going to give a couple remarks, because I'm excited about continuing the tour, but it's been an incredible year. Incredible year for sports and our athletes and our visitors all across the State of New York. And as I reflect on even the efforts to bring our Olympics here, it builds on a legacy, that of excellence, of exceptionalism, of greatness that really defines New York State. We are the Empire State. This summer we had a lot of exciting sporting events. Everybody was so united in sport for the New York Knicks winning the championship, watching World Cup soccer teams from around the world and visitors from every corner of the planet descending on our state and our region to celebrate the great sport of soccer.

So then we think, here, on Monday in August, this center is literally filled with Olympic hopefuls who are dreaming about the history of this place, but also perhaps the future that they may play a part in. Lake Placid is the only U.S. city to host two Winter Olympics - 1932 and 1980 - and everyone knows one of the greatest moments in Olympic history was the Miracle on Ice, 1980, right here. But these are also not just landmarks and places of the past. They're living reminders of what the future can be. And to continue into this year, we have our new 2026 lineup, 2026-27. Let me tell you some of the exciting things that are going here beyond just what you're seeing behind me. We have the Mountain Bike World Series, the Ski and Snowboard Super Tour, Eastern Conference men and women's ice hockey championships - so those we can look forward to, all coming right here. And the public is paying attention to this place. Chad, we just set some attendance records a couple days ago.

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We set some attendance records here. People are rediscovering the magic of sports and sharing with their families and letting them be part of this great history. What is important, though, is that you keep investing in this history, and that is why I'm proud that my administration has invested over $750 million to keep these facilities, all the ORDA facilities, top notch, world class. And that is why the world is paying attention. The athletes want to be here. I spoke to athletes this morning at Hoevenberg and the luge bobsled team. They all want to be here. They said they've been around the world. They've been [in] every corner competing. But they said everybody talks about our facilities here in Lake Placid because we put the money there and made the changes that were necessary. They bring in over a million visitors each year to this region, $350 million of economic growth for this region alone, which is really important here in the North Country. So what I've done in anticipation of building on all the excitement, the momentum, the Olympic life that we lead here in New York, I want to have a conversation about what 2042 could look like.

So I've already announced an exploratory committee [that] would include both Lake Placid and New York City. I think we're going to build on what we saw at Milano and Cortina. There's a lot of synergy, but also, I think with the opportunity to have New York City involved, it'll really enhance our chances of being selected as the bid. Now, the exploratory means we're just exploring, okay? Can't get ahead of myself here. We're just exploring the opportunities, assessing the benefits, the cost, how we would make it happen. My objective is to have that exploratory committee, of which there's a number of members here, wrap up in about a year, and then go from there to talk about the next steps. So we believe this will work. New York City has huge stadiums and is the center of the global media world. It also has proven itself to be a great sports city with the Knicks and the World Cup.

But we know this area. This area can host the Olympics here in the North Country. We've done it before. We want to do it again. My goal is to continue spurring economic development, creating jobs, bringing more money back to these parts of our state that need the economic development dollars and the tourism, making sure we make the investments not just in downtown facilities, but the infrastructure necessary. And you have my commitment to do that as we find a way to unite Upstate, Downstate, all together in search of Olympic glory. So, [I] want to inspire the next generation of New Yorkers to dream big, just like we've always dreamed big here in the great State of New York.