The Lake Placid Ski Club was awarded the grant Wednesday by the Northern Border Regional Commission, U.S. Rep. Bill Owens announced. Owens wrote that the project received funding because of its potential to support recreation and tourism in the North Country, and to safely train beginner and advanced ski jumpers.

Local groups have been advocating for the new jumps recently.

“This helps get us back in the game,” said Naj Wikoff, of Keene Valley, who wrote the grant application. “Getting this $100,000 grant says Lake Placid is planning on building and growing – don’t write us off.”

Wikoff said the new hills could bring national and international events like the Junior Nationals and women’s ski jumping competitions. NYSEF Director Jay Rand said the jumps would increase the likelihood of the Junior Olympics coming to Lake Placid.

“The grant is our start,” said Carol Hoffman, president of the Lake Placid Ski Club. “This is a community thing. It’s very important to keep our ski jumps up and running. By building these two jumps and making repairs to the complex, we hope it will attract these kids back to the area and, as a sport, keep more interest going into it.”

The effort includes the ski club, the New York Ski Educational Foundation and National Sports Academy, partnering with the town of North Elba and the state Olympic Regional Development Authority. The jumps are town-owned and managed by ORDA.

The groups plan to build a 35-meter and a 65-meter or 70-meter jump, both International Ski Federation qualified.

“A year from now, these hills will need these kinds of updates to be useable,” said ORDA board member Joe Lamb, who was an Olympic ski jumper in 1972 at the age of 16. “Basically, phase one would be the building of two new intermediate-size hills, replacing the old K48 (48 meter).”

There are four jumps at the Olympic Jumping Complex now: 20-meter, 48-meter, 90-meter and 120-meter. The 48-meter jump would be replaced with the two newly proposed jumps.

Completing the project will take a lot more funding. Lamb said the two jump adjustments will cost roughly $1.5 million. Adjusting all four jumps to FIS standards would cost an estimated $5.5 million.

The group hopes to pick up money from the Fairall family, of New Hampshire, who have $190,000 set aside for building an intermediate ski jump. Nick Fairall of Andover, New Hampshire, competed in ski jumping at this year’s Winter Olympics and trains in Lake Placid.

Lamb said the next step is for a study to be drawn up on the jumps and to continue to seek money.

“It will always be a hard road,” Lamb said. “We are going to need state aid just like the Whiteface (Veterans Memorial) Highway did.”

Wikoff said if the community continues to work with ORDA and the town, that is the best way to rebuild venues.

“ORDA was extremely important in this process,” Wikoff said.

Rand said the two new jumps would be instrumental in training young skiers to jump larger hills and become Olympic-caliber athletes.

“With the upgrade of the intermediate hill, it’s something that needs to be done to provide a good stepping stone for the kids to go from the smaller jumps to the Olympic-size K90 and K120,” Rand said. “Right now, it’s an extremely difficult task for kids to comfortably transfer to a hill that big.”

Rand, a 1968 Olympic ski jumper, said it could be dangerous for kids to make the transfer to bigger jumps currently.

“The most important thing for this is just the ability for kids to be trained properly, and stick with the sport,” Rand said.

Larry Stone, a retired ski jumping coach at NYSEF, said upgrading the jumps at the Olympic Jumping Complex is something he has been trying to get done for 12 years. He said the jumps should be continously updated to stay current with the sport.

“It’s a critical and very important step to develop ski jumping in Lake Placid – to get back to the state of the art and develop good international ski jumpers,” Stone said. “It’s important to learn to ski on approved hills that you’re going to be skiing on internationally.”