Several countries, including the United States, will try to qualify athletes for February’s Games. Eleven athletes from the U.S. will battle it out for two remaining Olympic team positions and possibly join 2009 World Champion Billy Demong (Vermontville, N.Y.) and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), a four-time Olympian and 2009 World Champion, on the squad.

Austria’s Felix Gottwald and Finland’s Hannu Manninen are expected to headline the international field. Gottwald is a six-time Olympic medalist and eight-time world championship medalist, while Manninen has captured 45-career World Cup victories and six world championship medals. Manninen also has three Olympic medals, the first of which he won at the age of 15 during the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

Competition begins both Saturday and Sunday with ski jumping, at the Olympic Jumping Complex, at 10 a.m.,  followed by cross country ski racing, at the Olympic Sports Complex, at 2 p.m.  Admission is free.

For more information about ORDA and the Olympic venues, visit www.whitefacelakeplacid.com.