Est. 1979 · 1980 Winter Olympics · Miracle on Ice · Herb Brooks Legacy · Sergei Grinkov Death Site · Figure Skating History
The Lake Placid Olympic Center broke ground in spring 1975 and opened on September 20, 1979, built to host the 1980 Winter Olympics ice hockey and figure skating competitions. During those Games, the arena became internationally famous when the U.S. men's hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union 4–3 in the semifinal on February 22, 1980—a result so unexpected it became known simply as the Miracle on Ice. The arena held over 8,600 spectators for the event and 11,000 at its record attendance.
The complex housed the main arena under various names—Field House International Ice Rink, Olympic Center Ice Rink, Verizon Sports Complex Arena—before being renamed Herb Brooks Arena in 2005 on the 25th anniversary of the American victory, in honor of the late U.S. head coach. The facility also contains the 1932 Jack Shea Arena and the USA Rink.
On November 20, 1995, the arena was being used for Stars on Ice rehearsals when pairs figure skating champion Sergei Grinkov, 28, collapsed on the ice during practice with his wife and longtime partner, Ekaterina Gordeeva. Grinkov had won gold medals with Gordeeva at the 1988 and 1994 Winter Olympics. An autopsy determined he had suffered a massive heart attack caused by severe, undiagnosed coronary artery disease—one major coronary artery was virtually completely occluded. His death at the Olympic Center, in the building where he had skated at the international level, hit the figure skating world hard. In 2015, on the 20th anniversary of his death, Gordeeva and other former Stars on Ice skaters returned to Lake Placid for a tribute performance.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Brooks_Arena
- https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2015/12/20-years-later-the-late-sergei-grinkov-s-family-fellow-skaters-return-to-lake-placid-for-new-show/
- https://www.lakeplacid.com/story/2023/haunted-lake-placid
Human shape in locked empty areas of the arenaSkater apparition in unscheduled practice hoursFelt presence by multiple independent skaters
Paranormal accounts at the Lake Placid Olympic Center center on Sergei Grinkov, whose sudden death at age 28 during practice on November 20, 1995 left an impression on the figure skating community that persists decades later.
The specific phenomena reported come in two forms. Arena staff have described seeing what appears to be a human shape—described in some accounts as a skater—moving through locked and empty sections of the facility during hours when no practice sessions are scheduled and the lights are off. The accounts involve both the main Herb Brooks Arena and the adjacent Speed Skating Oval. The reports come from employees rather than from visiting members of the public, which lends them a different character than typical tourist-facing haunting claims.
The second category of report comes from figure skaters who have trained or performed at the facility in the years since Grinkov's death. Multiple skaters, independently, have described a feeling of his presence while on the ice—something beyond ordinary memory or sentiment, perceived as active rather than residual. Lake Placid tourism accounts describe these reports as too consistent across different witnesses to dismiss outright.
Grinkov's death at the specific arena where he had skated in international competition—in the same facility that staged the 1980 Miracle on Ice—gives the paranormal accounts at this location a particular gravity: the building carries both a triumphant American sports memory and one of figure skating's sharpest moments of loss.
Notable Entities
Sergei Grinkov
