This past year has been busy in Lake Placid. Since January 2009, this hamlet that’s home to just over 2,600 folks in the middle of New York’s Adirondack Mountains has hosted not one, not even two, but six major international sporting events, including two World Championships.

Surprising in a town that has few hotel chains — no Hilton or Hyatt. More like Art Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn — next door to Bowl Winkles — and the Alpine Air Motel, which evokes vacations 1950s style. It’s the kind of town where locals recommend the sweet potato pancakes at Chair Six or the maple BLT at Ashley’s, which is just down the street from the skating oval where Eric Heiden won his five gold medals at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

But bringing in the world’s best athletes in sports from bobsled to figure skating is what Lake Placid has done since hosting those 1980 Olympics.

“It’s our way of keeping the venues vibrant,” said Jon Lundin, spokesperson for ORDA (Olympic Redevelopment Authority).

Last January, nearby Whiteface hosted a World Cup skiercross race while World Cup freestyle aerials were run at the Olympic Jumping Complex — just across the street from the village’s rodeo grounds.

In February, the 2009 Luge World Championships came to town, followed a couple of weeks later by the Skeleton and Bobsled Worlds. Americans notably won in those events — Erin Hamlin breaking the German’s 16-year hold on the women’s luge title, and U.S. bobsledders taking three medals at the 2009 World Championships.

While the foliage was just turning vibrant red and gold, the Junior Grand Prix figure skating competition brought some of the world’s best junior skaters to town. In early September, Kristine Musademba, 16, from Silver Spring, Maryland, beat Ksenia Makarova from Russia for the gold in the junior ladies competition. In the junior men’s event, Ross Miner 18, from Watertown, Massachusetts, took the gold ahead of Kento Nakamura from Japan.

Now, the world’s top senior figure skaters are here for Skate America, another Grand Prix event. Legions of fans — and press — have followed World champion Kim Yu-Na to this isolated burg that’s a five-hour drive north of New York City and 2.5 hours south of Montreal. Her fans have hung “Queen Yuna” banners all around the rink.

Next week, the skeleton athletes and bobsledders return for their second World Cup of the season.

“This is normal,” said Lundin, who’s heard no complaints about the long drive to Lake Placid from the nearest airport. Albany is 2.5 hours south, and the highway, Interstate 87, is a 30-minute drive from Lake Placid on twisty, frost-heaved Route 73. This two-lane road passes through a narrow mountain gorge a few miles east of town, and it must take significant amounts of New York’s transportation budget to keep the road from falling into the Cascade Lakes.

Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic figure skating gold medalist, first made a name for himself skating in Lake Placid in 1979 and told Skating Magazine that he loves the town.

“I have been there for so many reason — 13 Stars on Ice openings, going there for training camps in the summer and, of course, being there for my first Olympics,” he said in an article on how skaters have fond memories of Lake Placid.

Hamilton isn’t the only Olympian who has trained in Lake Placid. Lundin pointed out that of the 34 medals won by U.S. athletes at the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, 28 had trained in Lake Placid.

Although I have not verified this number, it’s easy to believe. And of the U.S. athletes who hope to medal in Vancouver, not only will many of them have trained in Lake Placid, they will have won medals here too.