New York City

NYC2012 founder Dan Doctoroff, second from left, and Olympic athletes unveiled the bid’s logo in Times Square on April 5, 2004. Mario Tama/Getty Images

I may not be an Olympic-caliber weightlifter, but I trained like one the day that “The Urbanist” arrived at my desk. The massive tome is more coffee-table book than paperback, but it rivals “The Power Broker” in its pure, physical mass – and that’s not by accident. “The Urbanist” profiles Dan Doctoroff as a modern-day Robert Moses. One of Mike Bloomberg’s deputy mayors, Doctoroff physically transformed New York City. And his catalyst was a bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

It’s a truism among five borough boosters that New York City reaped benefits from the bid, even if we ultimately lost out to London. Hudson Yards and the No. 7 train extension. Housing on the Long Island City waterfront. The NYC Ferry and the Bronx Terminal Market. All of it was kick-started by Doctoroff’s dream of hosting the Olympics.

And the optimistic side of me hopes that’s what happens with the nascent bid to host the 2042 Winter Olympics – an effort that City & State’s Kate Lisa wrote about in this week’s cover story. The Winter Games are smaller in scope than the summer ones, but this bid would be bigger in geography, stretching from the Big Apple to the North Country.

My own Olympic dreams were shattered last time I visited Lake Placid. I had skied a few runs at Whiteface Mountain before I slipped on an icy catwalk and pulled a muscle in my back. I spent the afternoon nursing a beer with my friend who’d just torn her ACL on the slopes.

Let’s hope New York’s bid doesn’t faceplant the same way. We’ll be following along the whole time, watching as this long-term project barrels down the mountain.