Olympics Village That Left Athletes 'Suffocated' Has Been Turned Into Prison
An Olympic village that athletes claimed was 'suffocating' them has since been turned into a prison.
The villages, which are usually purpose-built for the Olympics, are normally repurposed after the worldwide event for different uses.
After Paris 2024 concluded, work began on converting the Olympic village into a brand-new 'eco-neighbourhood', which is expected to house around 6,000 people and will include private, social and student housing.
The organisers of the 1980 Winter Olympics, hosted in Lake Placid, New York, had slightly different plans for their facility.
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The US Congress set aside a huge $28 million to build the village for the Winter Olympics, which was engulfed in controversy surrounding the participation of the Soviet Union amid the ongoing Cold War.
The government requested that, prior to releasing the funds, a clear plan would have to be submitted for how the village would be transformed post-Olympics.
But only one government agency signed up to take over the village - the Federal Prisons' Bureau.
As a result, the facility was designed with its post-Olympics usage in mind, meaning that the Winter Olympics athletes were effectively staying in a prison during their time in New York.
Norman A. Carlson, then the director of the FPB, said (via the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum): "No-one had thought about a prison. I certainly hadn't.
"They would, in effect, give us money to build a prison that we needed, a year earlier than we had anticipated.
"We were not building a traditional prison, this was much more modern.
"When you mention a prison, nobody wants it. Not in my backyard anyway.
"But [Robert] McEwen [New York congressman who represented Lake Placid] was firm: 'If we don't have a village, we won't have an Olympics. What do you want?' There was simply no alternative. Time was running out."
Once the village was opened, athletes were not impressed.
Gianfranco Camelli, a member of the Italian Olympic Committee, said at the time: "The rooms clearly show what they are meant for. Two persons cannot be in them.
"If two stay inside with the door closed for privacy, they'd feel as if they were in prison - suffocating."
After the Games, the Lake Placid Legacy Sites company was set up, allowing visitors to tour some of the Games' landmark sites.
For those interested in touring the village facility, however, it unsurprisingly isn't offered as an option.
FCI Ray Brook is now a medium-security prison which is based on the site of the village, and houses approximately 800 male inmates.
The facility has received a number of complaints surrounding living conditions, with some inmates placed in six-man cells.
One inmate even submitted a lawsuit to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, complaining of 'overcrowding, gang activities, violence [and] fights' in his cell.
They claimed that the cell size, which was around 174 square metres, was not enough 'to even turn or move'.
It remains open, however, and lists Rezwan Ferdaus, who was convicted of planning a terrorist attack on the Pentagon in 2012 and sentenced to 17 years in prison, among its inmates.
Topics: Olympics
Ryan Smart