Twelve residents of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake will be competing in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver:
Lowell Bailey, 28, of Lake Placid, biathlon.
Tim Burke, 28, of Paul Smiths, biathlon.
Ashley Caldwell, 16, of Lake Placid, freestyle ski aerials.
Bill Demong, 29, of Vermontville, Nordic combined.
Peter Frenette, 17, of Saranac Lake, ski jumping.
Mark Grimmette, 39, of Lake Placid, doubles luge.
Haley Johnson, 28, of Lake Placid, biathlon.
Brian Martin, 36, of Lake Placid, doubles luge.
Chris Mazdzer, 21, of Saranac Lake, luge.
John Napier, 23, of Lake Placid, bobsled.
Bengt Walden, 36, of Lake Placid, luge.
Andrew Weibrecht, 23, of Lake Placid, Alpine skiing.
LAKE PLACID — Twelve local athletes, along with more than a dozen competitors trained in Lake Placid, will march in Winter Games opening ceremonies Friday with athletes from 80 nations.
There may be no other town in America that has produced as many Olympians. It's a heritage borne in a passion for winter sports.
The region's most precious exports started checking into Vancouver's Olympic Center on Tuesday.
But the night before, their parents, brothers, sisters and coaches gathered in the Great Room at Crown Plaza, overlooking Mirror Lake, for a sendoff soiree.
Life-sized cardboard images of the athletes stood arrayed against the windows. Outside, snowflakes swirled on the north wind like sparkling confetti.
Parents and coaches offered clues as to why this region generates so many world-class Winter Game contenders.
"It's probably something in the water," joked Edwin Weibrecht, whose son Andrew, 23, is competing for the first time in Olympic Alpine skiing, the first native Lake Placid resident to do so.
Edwin, who serves on the Olympic Regional Development Authority Board of Directors, which manages Lake Placid's Olympic venues to host world-level competition, said inspiration comes from passion tuned through resolve.
"There were sacrifices that forced Andrew to make choices that were very, very hard at times."
'GO FOR IT'
Elizabeth Bailey, mom of Lowell Bailey, 28, arrived at the sendoff celebration after shopping for red, white and blue face paint for her and daughter Kendra to wear when they watch Lowell race on Sunday.
"We're going to paint Kendra's eyes as stars," Elizabeth said.
She recalled how a trio of Nordic skiing boys grew up training together: her son; Tim Burke, 28, biathlon competitor from Paul Smiths; and Bill Demong, 29, three-time Nordic combined Olympian from Vermontville.
They loved skiing at first swish.
"And I think for all parents, it's having the ability to say, go for it and we'll do whatever we can to help."
She credits the work of early Lake Placid ski coach Kris Cheney Seymour for putting "a signature on these boys," in terms of work ethic in focus, endurance and preparation.
SHOELACES, LOLLIPOPS
Seymour addressed the close-knit crowd of more than 100 family and friends Monday, sharing the earliest cavorts of these Olympians.
"I first met Lowell at the Van Hoevenberg (cross-country ski) stadium," Seymour said. "And he was arguing with his shoelaces. He said: 'Guys, can we stop? We've got somewhere to go.'"
Seymour said the moment reflects Lowell's simple recipe for success: "He's always moving forward."
On the first day Seymour coached Burke, the young skier turned to him and announced, "Well, I'm going to be a bi-athlete, and I think I'm going to the Olympic Games."
"It's all about motivation, and Tim Burke's was this," Seymour advised, holding up a Tootsie Roll Pop.
"I've seen Tim bowl over lots of other children to get a lollipop."
DRIVEN
Bill Demong inherited an engine for endurance from his father, said New York Ski Educational Foundation jump and skiing coach Larry Stone.
Demong's father, Leo, said the region's wilderness and Olympic heritage are a constant source of inspiration.
But he remembered how intently Bill listened and learned when other local athletes came home from world-class competition. It planted archetypal incentive.
"These boys just said, you know what, we can do this," Leo said.
Weibrecht's early coach, Jim Johnston, who trains for the Ski Educational Foundation, said he recognized the drive in Andrew early on.
"Even at a young age, he was very talented and very driven."
COMPETITORS
The Lake Placid Olympic sendoff honored all regional athletes, including Saranac Lake born-and-raised ski jumper Peter Frenette, 17; Nick Alexander, who hails from Lebanon, N.H., but trained at National Sports Academy; and women's bi-athlete Haley Johnson, 28, who also attended National Sports Academy, where Seymour cajoled her into switching alpine for Nordic skis.
The Adirondack's Olympic region lays claim to training more than two dozen of this year's competitors.
Lake Placid teen Ashley Caldwell, 16, is competing in freestyle aerial skiing, while five sliding Olympic contenders will race at Whistler Sliding Centre: Chris Mazdzer, 21, luge slider from Saranac Lake; Mark Grimmette, 39, luger from Lake Placid; Brian Martin, 36, and Bengt Walden, 36, lugers who now live in Lake Placid; and John Napier, 23, an engineer in the U.S. Army and reigning National Champion bobsled driver, also from Lake Placid.
Many Olympic skiers, biathletes, Nordic combined, freestyle and ski jumpers who grew up in Lake Placid trained in programs run by the Ski Educational Foundation, a nonprofit organization based here to give youngsters a start in snow sports.
But foundation coach Stone said it is parents who light the Olympic spark.
"We're here to pay homage to the real forces that gave us the material to work with.
"We have parents that really never hesitate to jump in and do what needs to be done."
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
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