An upstate New York boarding school that’s sent 23 athletes to the Winter Olympics recently sought bankruptcy protection as administrators work to revive the 38-year-old institution, the Wall Street Journal reported today. National Sports Academy, nestled near the base of Whiteface Mountain in the village of Lake Placid, N.Y., has seen its admission numbers dwindle and debts rise in recent years. Before the holidays, the school made last-minute pleas to donors to keep it operating through the end of the school year. It’s now looking to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to help turn things around. The not-for-profit school, which historically averaged 60 to 70 students per year, is down to 21 this year, said Lisa Wint, the head of the National Sports Academy. The majority are members of a boy’s hockey team, plus a few individual athletes who compete in bobsled, Nordic and luge events. The school relies heavily on room and board fees of $36,000 per student, Wint said, and is looking to rebuild the student body, including restarting a girl’s hockey team. The academy has $1.9 million in liabilities, according to a bankruptcy petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albany, N.Y.
