This comes following a recent inspection from FIS, which determined the need for repairs on the steel supports for the observation deck at the state Olympic Regional Development Authority site.

The planned work will block access to the athlete pathway required to reach the start of the jump — an essential standard outlined by FIS World Cup regulations, according to the ORDA Communications Director, Darcy Norfolk Rowe. As a result, the 2025 World Cup ski jumping event will be relocated to Klingenthal, Germany, on the same weekend.

“The Olympic Authority remains fully committed to ski jumping in Lake Placid and to maintaining world-class facilities that meet the highest standards of international competition,” Norfolk Rowe said in a statement. “While relocating this year’s World Cup is a difficult but necessary decision, we look forward to completing these improvements and welcoming the world back to future World Cup events after construction.”

She noted that while construction will soon take place on the deck of HS128 — the larger of the two — both jumps are still being used.

Three gondolas go up the side of the ski jumps at the Olympic Jumping Complex on Dec. 22, 2021. The Olympic Regional Development Authority board on Friday approved a variety of upgrades at the OJC, including the design and procurement of a wind curtain system and separation of public and athlete areas. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“(The repairs have) nothing to do with the in-runs, nothing to do with that area at all,” she said. “People have been going up the elevator all summer, but they’ve been contained into the room and not able to go out much onto the deck.”

Training is still taking place on the jump, and ORDA is still planning to host its annual Flaming Leaves Festival, which includes the US Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined National Championships, this fall. Norfolk Rowe said, unfortunately, the athletes will have to hike up from the bottom of the jump, instead of taking the elevator up to the top.

The biggest issue as of now is dealing with the repair project. The location itself presents a challenge because it’s so high in the air. Norfolk Rowe said ORDA is looking into the best approach on how to get to it to do the repairs.

“It’s a skyscraper, essentially, so a full evaluation is being done for a faster approach on how to get the repair work done,” she said. “Whether it’s scaffolding or another means to do it.”

The ski jumping World Cup first returned to Lake Placid in 2023, following a 32-year hiatus. Since then, the village has hosted the event every year, including this past February when women’s ski jumping was added to the slate, marking the first-ever time the women’s discipline has been held on U.S. soil.

Norfolk Rowe called it a “premier event,” but doesn’t expect these repairs to hurt Lake Placid’s chances of hosting the World Cup in the future.

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This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.