Ironman Lake Placid will celebrate 25 years, but will it continue after that?

Today Ironman announced that Ironman Lake Placid will be back to celebrate a 25th anniversary next year, which isn’t exactly news since a contract with the community had been signed through 2024. (We covered that news last year – see the story below.)

Are the days of Ironman Lake Placid coming to an end?

Next year’s 25th anniversary will take place on July 21.

Ironman Lake Placid, which started in 1999, was the first Ironman event held in the United States outside of Hawaii. Until then, the only Ironman races in North America were Ironman Canada and the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. The race in Lake Placid was part of the huge expansion of Ironman events around the world that began in 1998. Later that year Graham Fraser’s company, Ironman North America, would add Ironman Florida to the list, with Ironman California (which has since become Ironman 70.3 Oceanside) coming a year later. The list just picked up from there – Wisconsin, Coeur d’Alene, the short-lived original Utah, Arizona and Texas.

Lake Placid was the perfect venue for the expansion in North America, offering a great mix of scenery, facilities, accommodation and resources. A town that had hosted two Olympics and had a lake pretty in the centre of town, all within running distance of the Olympic speed skating oval that serves as an excellent transition and finish line. Like Mont-Tremblant would become over a decade later, it is a fantastic venue for an Ironman event.

While the community enjoys benefits just beyond full hotel rooms and restaurants during race week – weekends during the summer see triathletes flock to the area for training camps – over the past few years the community appears to have become a little less excited about the race. In 2021 an “Ironman Task Force” was created to “assess the community impacts of Ironman,” according to a story posted on lakeplacidnews.com. That task force recommended that the Ironman contract be extended through to the end of next year as long as Ironman made some changes to “address residents’ concerns with the race and improve athlete safety,”

The end result was an extension of Ironman’s contract with the region through 2024. That ensured a 25th anniversary race, but there’s no word on what happens after that.

COVID effect

In an interview with NCPR in 2021, Jim McKenna, the CEO of the Lake Placid’s Regional Office for Sustainable Development explained why the town had done an open meeting to discuss whether or not to review the Ironman contract.

“The event certainly does have some inconveniences for the residents,” McKenna said. “Number one was road closures. Number two, it’s been a 22 year run at this point and there’s a feeling that half the community loves it half the community is unsure about it. We thought that being an organization that deals with tourism and understanding that the community is number one, we thought it was quite important to get as much engagement and information from the community at large before we commit to another multi-year contract.”

McKenna also pointed out that it was also time to reevaluate the Ironman event in Lake Placid because of a bump in “leisure travel” after the COVID pandemic.

“Well, number one, the COVID effect has affected leisure travel and destinations like the Adirondacks, close to metropolitan areas, has certainly seen a clear uptick in leisure travel,” McKenna said. “So number one, we feel that if this event did not continue, we would be able to infill with normal leisure travel. Number two, we’re putting major emphasis now on destination management, which really leads to quality of life for residents and quality of place for visitors. It’s really a matter of figuring out what the proper equation is for economics sustainable growth, at the same time keeping the community as the foundation and reason why you do it.”

2024 registration

In the meantime, though, athletes will be able to register for next year’s anniversary event on site at this year’s race, which takes place on Sunday. Online registration will open on July 31 here. This year’s event is sold out,

“For the 25th anniversary in 2024, the event will feature special festivities throughout race week, including a welcome ceremony honoring past champions, a captivating expo showcasing the latest advancements in triathlon gear and nutrition, and engaging community events that bring together athletes, families, and residents alike,” Ironman announced today. “… Ironman Lake Placid triathlon will be more than a race; it will be an immersive experience that celebrates the indomitable human spirit and the legacy of 25 years of endurance sports excellence.”