LAKE PLACID — The 10-race para-bobsleigh World Cup series kicks off its North American swing when Lake Placid hosts more than 24 athletes from 14 nations, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 6-7.

The 2019-20 series began in early December in Lillehammer, Norway and has traveled through Oberhof, Germany and St. Moritz, Switzerland before returning to the famed Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex Track.

Para-Bobsleigh athletes compete on their own in specially designed ‘monobobs.’ Both men and women race against each other. The athletes will take two race runs each day on Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s mile-long chute.

Last Saturday and Sunday, in St. Moritz, Latvia’s Arturs Klots and Great Britain’s Corie Mapp shared World Cup victories. Mapp’s victory, his fourth of the season, on Saturday, helped him to extend his World Cup lead over Klots to 105 points. Canada’s Lonnie Bissonnette sits in third place with 1,195 points, just two points shy of second place overall.

Training Tuesday through Wednesday is slated to begin at 10 a.m. each day. Racing on Thursday and Friday also gets underway 10 a.m. both days. Admission at the gate for adults is $9, while a single-day ticket for juniors and seniors is $7. Children 6 and under are free.

Following Lake Placid, the series travels to Park City, Utah for the final two races of the season.