A Troubled Winter Olympics? We’ve Seen This Before

Once, a relatively obscure city prepared to stage a Winter Olympics and it was not going well. Costs spiraled. Construction was repeatedly delayed. Environmental concerns kept cropping up. Transportation was predicted to be a nightmare. Closer to the Games, terrorist threats emerged, an absurdly warm winter left the mountain almost bereft of snow and rising political tensions threatened to overrun the whole show.

If that sounds a lot like the Sochi Games, you might be surprised to know that was the scene in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980. Before it became America’s most charming Winter Games, the stage for the Miracle on Ice, before Eric Heiden used it to sling five speedskating gold medals around his neck, Lake Placid seemed to be hurtling toward Olympic ignominy.

The tiny city, population roughly 2,700, was hosting the 1980 Games for one reason: it was the only bidder. Vancouver dropped out before the voting in 1974. So, it was Lake Placid, which had hosted the quaint 1932 Games, or bust. In the months before the Games, more than a few people were voting for bust....