LAKE PLACID – The secretary general of the International Children’s Games visited Lake Placid this week to talk about when, not if, this area could host the International Olympic Committee-sanctioned event for 12 to 15 year-olds.

The ICG’s Richard Smith toured almost all of the greater Lake Placid area’s winter sports facilities Tuesday and Wednesday. He also met with a contingent of local sports, tourism, business and government leaders, and with several members of the young Team Lake Placid that traveled to Innsbruck, Austria, in January for the ICG.

Speaking at the Conference Center at Lake Placid after meeting with representatives of the village, Smith said he had no fear about the village’s sports sites “whatsoever, because everything is here and in place.”

Smith lives in Germany but is originally from Syracuse. Knowing he would visit family in Syracuse on a vacation this summer, back in January at the ICG in Innsbruck he suggested to local officials that he visit Lake Placid then as well.

Smith said Lake Placid is one of three cities that have expressed interest to the ICG in hosting an upcoming Winter Games, and that this was his first visit to an interested city.

On a personal level as a native New Yorker, Smith said it “would be very happy for me to be able to help to get the ICG to Lake Placid,” and as a professional he “would see no problem in having the games here.

“This visit just put the icing on the cake, as far as I’m concerned, because I knew what’s up here, knew the people, knew the town,” he said. “(I) saw no problem on side of (the) ICG to get the games here in Lake Placid.”

The question is when.

“Lake Placid is definitely interested in hosting the Games,” Smith added. “The timeline is something we have to talk even more about.

Smith also said he extended his trip from one to three days due to the amount of work needed to be accomplished on the trip. Along with Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism CEO Jim McKenna and Team Lake Placid representative Art Lussi, the group of 11 who met with Smith included state Olympic Regional Development Authority CEO Ted Blazer, Ironman Vice President of Operations in North America Jeff Edwards, Tait Wardlaw of the Empire State Winter Games, village trustee Peter Holderied and town of North Elba Supervisor Roby Politi. Village Mayor Craig Randall was out of town, though he traveled to Innsbruck in January for the games and has been a vocal proponent of bringing them here.

Smith said the small-town nature of Lake Placid bodes well for its candidacy, as he feels the ICG would be more appreciated here compared to other host cities that have populations in the millions. He also highlighted the community’s ability to organize the event itself compared to Innsbruck which hired an outside events company.

“We have had games in 10 million population cities, and nine million didn’t know we were there,” Smith said. “I think Lake Placid would be just the opposite.”

Smith said the questions the Lake Placid contingent had for him pertained to the event’s delegation size, sponsorship restrictions, the length of the games and the timeline for a bidding process, among other things.

Smith said nothing would have to be built for a Lake Placid games, as he commented that the village “has the knowledge of how to organize games like this,” and that Lake Placid has a volunteer system that would only have to be slightly changed for the ICG.

“At the moment, there are no questions whatsoever that have not been answered,” Smith said. “I’m going back with good vibrations, and going to report to the (ICG) president.”

Smith said between 2019 and 2021 would be possible years for Lake Placid to host, adding that an earlier year would be preferable.

A bid for a 2019 or 2020 games would be made in Kaunas, Lithuania, next June, where a host city would also be awarded. Smith declined to name the other two interested cities.

McKenna said the Lake Placid contingent is still working on funding, though he mentioned “sponsorship consistent with children’s sports” as a possibility.

Smith said he does not have concerns about the snowmaking abilities of Lake Placid’s facilities in the case of inadequate amounts of snow during the event, pointing to snowmaking at Whiteface Mountain Ski Center and the ski jumps. McKenna said if need be, events scheduled for Mount Van Hoevenberg could be moved to trails at the ski jumps, similar to what was done at this year’s Empire State Winter Games, which were plagued by warm weather.

The ROOST CEO added that he sees this as a means to improve the chances of getting state-of-the-art snow-making to the Mount Van Hoevenberg cross-country ski center.

“Everybody has done their homework now, and we’ll keep in touch the next few months,” Smith said. “And we’ll see when any kind of a green light will go on.”