By Bob Williams

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. Dec. 25 (World Wide News) – This two-time Winter Olympic village will welcome many athletes from the Torino Winter Olympics as its yearly lineup of sports action continues. The action includes World Cup events in bobsled, skelton, freestyle skiing and snowboarding during the 2006-07 season.

The schedule was released by the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), managers of Lake Placid’s 1980 Winter Olympic venues.

In addition, ORDA will offer the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, the Empire State Winter Games and the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four, as well as entertainment shows such as Disney on Ice presents Monsters, Inc., and Snoe.down with moe.

“The beauty of Lake Placid coupled with an outstanding array of events and shows continues to make this village a most enticing vacation destiny,” said Charles A. Gargano, chairman of ORDA and chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. “It is this combination of assets, together with Governor Pataki’s unwavering support of the Lake Placid Olympic venues, which will carry the region to further economic prosperity. The recent ORDA impact statement of $356 million statewide was staggering. It remains our mission to grow that number.”

The Chevrolet Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, presented by Whelen Engineering, Jan. 4-6 brings a group of auto racing drivers here to Lake Placid in a fundraiser for the United States bobsled teams. The likes of NASCAR’s Geoff, Todd and Brett Bodine, Kevin Lepage and Boris Said are committed to drive modified bobsleds down the demanding Lake Placid course.

The goal is to generate funds to further their research, development and construction efforts for new bobsleds.

World Cup freestyle skiing athletes will compete in the region Jan. 18-20 as part of their annual visit. It is expected that all four Olympic gold medalists will be in action.

Dale Begg-Smith of Australia, who dominated the Whiteface Wilderness trail a year ago with two World Cup victories en route to Olympic moguls gold, should return to the Adirondacks, as will Canadian Jennifer Heil, another reigning Olympic champion in the bumps event. Evelyne Leu of Switzerland and Xiaopeng Han of China, Olympic women’s and men’s gold medalists, respectively, in aerials, will launch themselves 50 to 60 feet in the air and perform their spinning twists.

The USA’s Jeret “Speedy” Petersen will join the aerials fray at the jumping complex in Lake Placid. American moguls skiers Hannah Kearney and Nate Roberts, reigning World Champions, are expected to compete.

World Cup snowboarding, a relatively newcomer to the ORDA winter sports scene, will make its third stop at Whiteface in as many years March 10-11.

College hockey makes its return March 16-18 when the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four will be contested here in the famed 1980 Rink Herb Brooks Arena, site of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, in which the United States defeated the Russia hockey team for the gold.

“We have been blessed with an ambitious schedule of events,” said ORDA Director of Events Jim Goff. “Elsewhere, the season immediately following a Winter Olympics can sometimes be a quiet one. Not here, however.”

Other season event highlights include the Lake Placid Loppet cross country ski races Feb. 10; Disney on Ice presents Monsters Inc. Feb. 15-19; the Empire State Winter Games Feb. 23-25and Snoe.down, a winter music festival, featuring moe., March 23-25.

For more information, call 1-800-462-6236, or visit the area on www.whitefacelakeplacid.com.

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Belleayre and Wall Street – Perfect Together – Belleayre Mountain in Highmount, N.Y., will host the Wall Street Adaptive Skiing Awareness Day on Saturday, Jan. 6. It’s a special event to thank people from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) who have provided Belleayre Mt. with six new adaptive skiing sleds. In addition, the event will introduce the Belleayre adaptive ski school.

Two not-for-profit foundations, through the stock exchange, Pack for Iraq and Member’s Handicapped Children’s Fund, donated adaptive skiing equipment to Belleayre this fall. Four children’s sleds and two adult sleds added to Belleayre’s fleet of adaptive equipment available for lessons and rental.

To call attention to Belleayre’s adaptive skiing program, Tony Lanza, Belleayre’s superintendent, will ring the bell to open trading Thursday, Dec. 28, at the stock exchange.

For more information, visit www.belleayre.com.