When Lake Placid was awarded the 1980 Winter Games in 1974, venue adjustments were needed. For the alpine skiing events, snow making equipment was used. This was used to make of man-made snow to cover all of the trails used for the events. Six new ski lifts and electronic timing/ scoring systems were also constructed. For the Nordic skiing events (cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping), a total of 26 event officials were sent as observers to the 1978 world championships in Lahti, Finland to understand the venue needs for the 1980 Games. For the 50 km race, a total of was purchased and a trail system was created that involved tree-clearing. Man-made snow was also applied for the cross-country skiing trail. Races over 10 km in length were modified to meet the snow requirements as defined by the International Ski Federation. An electronic scoreboard was installed for the cross-country skiing events. This information was passed onto organizers for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Two new ski jumps were constructed. The jump was constructed between May 1977 and December 1978. Construction for the jump also started in May 1977, but was not done until the February 1979 test event to construction delays caused by the bankruptcy of the steel contractor. Biathlon used trails similar to cross-country skiing though a separate finish area was used. A protective shooting area of was built for the competition of for 36 shooting stations was built. To cover of biathlon trails, twelve snow-making guns were used.