Exactly 40 years ago, from 13 to 24 February 1980, Lake Placid hosted the Olympic Winter Games for the second time. The Olympic legacy can be seen throughout this mountain village, which has become a training hub for American athletes and has played host to numerous international competitions.

Skeleton returned to the Olympic programme in 2002, more than 50 years after its last appearance, when Nino Bibbia had taken a gold medal at St Moritz. With all of the world’s best male and female exponents in action, it proved an instant hit with the fans. In the men’s competition the favourites were Martin Rettl, an air traffic controller from Austria, Switzerland's Gregor Stähli and the American Jim Shea Jr.