Test your mettle on courses made for Olympians

Lake Placid Boasts 50 kilometers of cross-country ski trails, some used for the 1980 Games. There's also world-class downhill skiiing, bobsled, luge, and hockey. (Nancy Battaglia/ The New York Times)

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Eric Heiden never skated this slowly when he won his five gold medals in 1980. I've laced myself into an ancient pair of Tacks, the leather hockey skates that were top-of-the-line in 1969, and am motoring (relatively speaking) along the same iced-down speedskating oval that was carved up by two generations of Olympians. The only difference is, no one played the national anthem for me after I crossed the finish line.

It is a fine fantasy, though, and if you crave the whole "thrill of victory" experience, you can get it for a modest price in this charming Adirondack village, tucked between mountains and lakes, which twice has hosted the Winter Games.

You can do laps around the oval until you're dizzy. You can take a wild ride down the bobsled run, wedged between a professional driver and a brakeman who know their way through the Labyrinth curve.

You can ski down the same mountain that the Austrians did, and kick-and-glide along the same cross-country trails as the Norwegians. You can learn to ski-and-shoot like a German biathlete. And you can take an elevator to the top of the ski jump, from where you can see halfway to Vermont.

If you don't want to put your skeletal structure at risk, you can get a virtual sample at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg and the Olympic Center in the village, where simulators create a real-life taste of five events.

The Olympics have grown so big these days that they may never return to this hideaway of 2,600 people, which encompasses only 1 1/2 square miles, including water. But that is part of Placid's unchanging charm.

Unlike resorts in Colorado and Utah that have been engulfed by boom and sprawl, the village has retained much of the scale and style it had in 1932, when the Lords of the Rings brought their snow-and-ice carnival here for the first time.

There's still only one main street (called Main Street) and three traffic lights - three times as many as there were when Mike Eruzione took his shot heard 'round the world against the Soviets. There's a throwback movie theater (the Palace), bookstores, a wine store, a tobacconist, ski shops, and restaurants that serve carbo-packed breakfasts meant for those who'll be exercising outdoors until dusk.

That was the idea a century ago, when tycoons like J.P. Morgan and Alfred Vanderbilt realized that Lake Placid was a wonderful place for them and their wealthy playmates to "rough it," and built their Great Camps here.

Such was the pitch when the residents bid for the 1932 Olympics, inviting the world to a place "up where the mountains meet the sky and the deep, white snows of winter say to young and old, 'Come up and play!' "

The village spent $1 million on the Games in the middle of the Depression, including building a hair-raising bob run, a "neck-breaking plaything" that sent nine athletes to the hospital, but not Eleanor Roosevelt, who slid down wearing leather headgear.

The hero was a local boy named Jack Shea, a Dartmouth student who lived across the street. He took the athletes' oath at the opening ceremonies, quickly put on his speed skates and a scarlet beret, won the first gold medal awarded, and went home to have lunch and study.

When the Games returned 48 years later, they'd grown so big and demanding that Placid needed to build an athletes' village (later, and controversially, turned into a prison), a new skating arena (next to the old one), two ski jumps, and separate runs for the bobsled and luge.

The price of maintaining all of it was high enough that the village turned over the venues to the state after the Games. Now, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which oversees this wintry jungle gym, has turned it into an experience well worth the five-hour drive from Boston (check orda.org for schedule).

Head out the Massachusetts Turnpike to the New York Thruway, then take Interstate 787 north to Route 7 to the Northway (a.k.a. I-87) and then up to exit 30. From there, it's an undulating 30-mile ride west through the hamlets of St. Huberts, Keene Valley, and Keene until the village suddenly appears around a corner.

Once there, you're pleasantly frozen in time. Park in the huge lot next to the ice arena and take a walking tour of downtown, which won't consume more than half an hour from end to end. If you've got comfortable footwear, set off on a lung-cleansing stroll around Mirror Lake, which first-timers might confuse with Lake Placid, which is around the bend on the road to Saranac Lake. At night, the view across to the village, a-twinkle with lights, is enchanting.

This is an up-and-at-'em place, with skiers wolfing down pancakes shortly after dawn before they hit the slopes at Whiteface, which boasts the greatest vertical drop in the East. That's where Leonhard Stock, the obscure Austrian who replaced the legendary Franz Klammer at the 11th hour, won the 1980 downhill with the descent of his life.

After schussing there, you can switch to cross-country skis at the Olympic complex, with its 50 kilometers of trails, some of which were used for the Games.

If you want to satisfy your "Cool Runnings" curiosity, the bob ride ($65 for an adult, $55 for ages 12 and under) is a must. It's a tamer version of the Olympic event, with the sled starting halfway up the mile-long run, but the G-forces provide a brain-blurring taste of the real thing.

For a more active experience, you can take biathlon lessons, which are offered on Sundays and during Christmas and February vacation weeks. For $30, you get an hourlong lesson in freestyle skiing, then head to the shooting range with a .22 rifle.

On the way back to town on Route 73, stop at the ski jumps (can't miss 'em). Then, after a hearty dinner (there is no other kind in the Adirondacks), pull on your skates (or rent a pair) and hit the speedskating oval, which is open from 7-9 p.m. and 1-3 p.m. on weekends.

If you want the whole ice-and-snow smorgasbord, buy an Olympic sites passport for $29. It includes admission to all the venues and the Olympic museum, plus discount coupons for the bob ride and biathlon lessons, and it's valid through April 8. If all you want is a smaller, ersatz taste, for $7 the virtual exhibits let you be a bobber, a luger, a downhill skier, a ski jumper, and a hockey goalie.

With the tycoon age long past, the 19th-century Lake Placid Club has been turned into a resort community, but the village still is a stop on the winter tour. World Cup events in bobsled and luge will be held next month, with the freestyle skiers dropping by in January and the snowboarders in March. It's still a place where the mountains meet the sky, where the lakes freeze and the snow swirls and your inner Heiden is invited to come up and play.

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.