FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12/01/2022
CONTACT: Jon Lundin, Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games Head of Communications & Media ([email protected]) Tel: 518-637-6885
To Purchase Tickets for the January 12 Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games Opening Ceremony Click HERE.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games Torch Relay Celebration kicks off on Dec. 7 on the Alfred University campus in Alfred, N.Y. The tour will make 15 stops throughout New York State and Indigenous communities of the St. Regis Mohawk and the Mohawk Community of Kahnawá:ke before culminating in the FISU Games’ first carbon-free cauldron lighting in Lake Placid. The cauldron lighting will open the 31st FISU World University Games Winter Edition on Jan. 12, 2023.
“The Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games Torch Relay Celebration will be traditional in promoting messages of peace and friendship between peoples, cooperation and connection among those along the route, and a geographical link from the FISU Games’ historical origin of Turin, Italy through New York State to Lake Placid,” said Ashley Walden, executive director of the Adirondack Sports Council, the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games’ Organizing Committee.
Less than two months away, the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games, Jan. 12-22, is expected to bring together 1,500 collegiate athletes, age 17-25, from 600 universities in 50 countries to participate in Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, freestyle and freeski, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, snowboarding ski jumping, and speed skating.
Torchbearers will include exemplary community members and local volunteers, athletes, leading sustainability innovators and experts, standout university students, local and state dignitaries and previous FISU participants, among others.
For the first time the FISU Flame is being carried in a sustainable torch, with no actual combustion or flame present. Instead, in keeping with the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games’ mission of sustainability, LED lights in the torch produce a brightly illuminated FISU Flame in a carbon-free presentation. These Games are the first in FISU history to make sustainability a major emphasis and provide a model for future FISU Games through the Save Winter campaign. Powered by Hydro-Québec and supported by ESPN, Karbon, Microplus and Panasonic, Save Winter is a movement designed to unite all who love winter to work together on the mission to save “the season of snow.”
The 22-inch-long torch was created and built by Adirondack Studios of Argyle, N.Y., the same studio that built the award podiums for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. The custom-made torch consists of elongated steel encasing a glacial-blue body, representing an artistic interpretation of ice and water.
Among the stops is Syracuse University, home to the Newhouse School of Public Communications. During the 11-day, winter multi-winter sports event and educational festival, more than a dozen Newhouse students will get real-world experience as photojournalists, reporters and social media contributors while based in Lake Placid.
Other highlighted stops include the Indigenous lands of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in Akwasasne, N.Y., and the Mohawk Kahnawá:ke Nation in Quebec, Canada; New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza; Albany’s Empire State Plaza; and the campuses of Clarkson University and SUNY Potsdam.
The Torch Relay that will culminate in Lake Placid includes stops at two of the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority venues where many of the competitions will be held. The relay will then conclude with the lighting of the cauldron in the historic Brewster Park.
Dec. 7 – Alfred University; Syracuse University^
Dec. 8 – SUNY Plattsburgh; Mohawk Tribe of Kahnawá:ke, Quebec, Canada
Dec. 9 – SUNY Canton^; SUNY Potsdam*^; Clarkson University
Dec. 15 – Albany*^ – Empire State Plaza
Dec. 16 – New York City
Jan. 10 – Queensbury*^ – Great Escape Lodge; North Creek – Town Hall and Gore Mountain (ski the torch); Keene^ – Town Hall
Jan. 11 – Paul Smith’s College; Tupper Lake^ – Wild Center; Saranac Lake*^ – Town Hall
Jan. 12 – Wilmington – Community Center and Whiteface Mountain; Lake Placid*^Town Hall, Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort, the Olympic Regional Development Authority Olympic Center, Brewster Park Cauldron Lighting
Fans can follow the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with @LakePlacid2023, @SaveWinterHQ, #lakeplacid2023, #savewinter.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Application requests for working media accreditation for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games continue through December 12, 2023. To apply for media accreditation, click HERE. To download the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games’ media guide click HERE, the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games’ media services guide is available HERE.
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