Matt Russell crosses the finish line as overall victor of the Ironman Lake Placid triathlon in July 2019. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

LAKE PLACID — Athletes who aren’t vaccinated are now allowed to participate in Lake Placid’s Ironman triathlon as long as they can provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result.

The policy change was announced late last week, one day after the village of Lake Placid and town of North Elba each rolled back vaccine requirements for large-scale events.

Rather than require all athletes to be vaccinated, Ironman organizers are now allowing unvaccinated athletes to participate in the triathlon as long as they test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of arriving for the event. That’s in line with the town and village’s new requirements.

Asked if unvaccinated athletes would need to wear masks, the Ironman press office did not immediately respond by deadline Monday.

The Ironman press office told the Enterprise about the policy change this past Thursday. It’s the Enterprise’s policy to attribute statements to specific spokespeople. Asked multiple times for their name, the spokesperson who shared the information did not identify themselves by deadline Monday.

An announcement about the policy change was also posted to Ironman Lake Placid’s social media accounts on Thursday.

“With the support of our host communities, it remains our top priority to deliver the excellent and safe race experiences our athletes deserve,” the announcement reads. “We are currently in the process of updating all athlete material to reflect the appropriate changes regarding vaccinations, face coverings, and screening protocol.”

Registered athletes should’ve already gotten an email with more information. Those who haven’t gotten an email are being asked to reach out to lakeplacid@ironman.com.

The Ironman course will be slightly altered this year because of ongoing construction at the Olympic Speedskating Oval. Athletes’ swim start will still be at the municipal beach, but athletes will exit Mirror Lake on a private beach owned by Northwood School at the northern end of the lake. The new transition area for athletes will be located at Northwood School. Northwood School has asked athletes not to enter its beach area or campus until race week. The finish line will be on Main Street in front of the Olympic Speedskating Oval.

In light of the town-village vaccine requirement rollback, other large sporting events have also dropped their vaccine requirement.

Lake Placid Summit Classic Tournament Co-founder George Leveille said last week that the upcoming tournament for adults would no longer require its participants be vaccinated. Tournament organizers will “strongly encourage” people to get vaccinated and ask that unvaccinated participants wear a mask when possible, he said.