[3] Lake Placid was elected as the host city for the 1980 Winter Games at the 75th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Vienna, Austria in 1974.

The Lake Placid Winter Olympics brought together 1,072 athletes from 37 countries to take part in six sports and 10 disciplines comprising a total of 38 official events (one more than in 1976).

[5] Until 1980, each of the bid attempts failed, either due to falling short of gaining support at the national level, or during the IOC vote.

But on January 26, 1973, the Salt Lake City bid collapsed due to unsecured financial backing and discontent by Utah residents.

[6] Lake Placid city and USOC submitted a late bid to host the 1976 Games to the IOC in February 1973,as there was a risk that this selection process would be canceled due to the lack of interested parties.

[6][7] The IOC selected Innsbruck, Austria to host the 1976 Games in place of Denver, with Lake Placid finishing as the runner-up.

[8][9] IOC President Lord Killanin later stated that members of the IOC executive favored the Austrian bid as a way to "make peace with the people of Austria" over the decision in 1972 to declare Austrian skiing star Karl Schranz ineligible for the games as a professional athlete.

[5] The United States Olympic Committee, embarrassed by Denver's 1976 withdrawal, required Lake Placid's bid to be widely supported by residents and government.

Lake Placid satisfied the USOC requirements, with a referendum held in October 1973 garnering 75 per cent support for hosting the games, a joint resolution of the New York Legislature, a joint resolution from the Congress of the United States, a letter of support from the Governor of New York and the President of the United States.

In November 1979, Sixty-two Americans were taken hostage at the United States Embassy in Tehran by Iranian militants, a situation that would not resolve until after the Games.

[16] In December 1979, the Soviet Union began the invasion of Afghanistan, which led to United States President Jimmy Carter calling for the international boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

[16] The Western governments first considered the idea of boycotting the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics in response to the situation in Afghanistan at the 20 December 1979 meeting of NATO representatives.

However, this idea gained popularity in early January 1980 when Soviet nuclear scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov called for a boycott.

On 14 January 1980, the Carter Administration joined Sakharov's appeal and set a deadline by which the Soviet Union must pull out of Afghanistan or face the consequences, including an international boycott of the games.

On 26 January 1980, Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark announced that Canada, like the US, would boycott the Olympic Games if Soviet forces did not leave Afghanistan by 20 February 1980.

[26] The budget overruns were attributed to environmental protection measures, additional work undertaken to modernize existing facilities, overly optimistic cost estimates, and inflation.

[33] Security for the Lake Placid Winter Games was provided by the New York State Police and 26 other agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[10] Most of the accommodations within the community were reserved for Games officials and athletes' families, meaning spectators commuted as much as 90 miles daily to attend events.

[10] Anticipating these challenges, the LPOOC prohibited private cars from entering Lake Placid for the duration of the Games.

[34] The first evidence that the Games would be plagued with transportation issues came with the February 1979 pre-Olympic ski jumping competition which saw spectators create an 11-mile traffic jam.

[10] Once the Games started, the inadequate transportation planning was evident quickly as American and Soviet athletes arrived late for the opening ceremony.

[10] Throughout the Games the main street of Lake Placid was often blocked by traffic jams, and journalists, spectators and athletes found long waits at bus stops.

Congress required an after use contract for facilities, and it was agreed that the Olympic Village would be built in accordance to Federal Bureau of Prisons needs.