The original 1980 Olympic rings, which have been in storage for years, were mounted on the side of the Olympic Center building and relit for the first time since 1980 after an event celebrating the reopening of the Lake Placid Olympic Museum on Dec. 7. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — When two-time Olympic medalist Andrew Weibrecht stopped by an event celebrating the reopening of the new Lake Placid Olympic Museum Wednesday, Dec. 7, he didn’t expect to see a photo of himself on display.

The floor-to-ceiling photo shows Weibrecht, of Lake Placid, competing in a race during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He won a bronze medal there and a silver at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, both in the super-G race. The features of his face are fixed in a look of determination and grit as he sails downhill. Weibrecht said he was “blown away” and surprised to see the photo at the museum.

“It’s quite an honor,” he said.

The newly rebuilt and modernized museum, located in the Olympic Center, is filled with exhibits that tell stories with artifacts. People can go for a bobsled run, soar from the ski jumps and relive the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey game at the museum, which officially reopened to the public on Dec. 8. Uniforms from the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, torches from Winter Olympics near and far, and hundreds of Olympic pins speak of the styles, sports cultures and social themes of their time.

But for the museum’s designers and the many community members attending the museum’s unveiling on Dec. 7, the stories didn’t start and end with the artifacts — the exhibits came to life as more than 100 people, including former Olympians, relived their own memories of Lake Placid’s sports history.

State officials cut a ribbon with ice hockey skates on Wednesday, Dec. 7, marking the reopening of the Lake Placid Olympic Museum in the Olympic Center. From left are state Olympic Regional Development Authority President and CEO Mike Pratt, Deputy Director of State Operations Todd Westhuis, Lake Placid Olympic Museum Board President Jonathan Becker and ORDA Board of Directors Chair Joe Martens. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

Asked what he was thinking during the competition in Vancouver, when the photo on display was taken, Weibrecht said he was probably just trying to get down the hill — combined races like that one weren’t the easiest for him.

–

The Olympic story

–

Weibrecht’s determined expression in the photo is why Ted Johnson, the president of Hadley Exhibits — the Buffalo-based company that designed the new museum — fought for the photo’s placement at the end of the museum’s hallway. The exhibit designers decided that, per Johnson’s recommendation, Weibrecht’s photo best told the Olympic story.

A torch relay uniform from the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid is on display at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. For the relay, the exhibit states, 26 men and 26 women were selected from more than 6,000 applicants. Each carried the flame several times during the course of the relay that began in Virginia and visited United States landmarks on the way to Lake Placid, where it was used to light the cauldron during the opening ceremony. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

“This was the story of why people want to become an Olympian,” Fotini Galanes, the creative director at Hadley Exhibits, said of the photo. “That drive, that passion. And that was our main focus.”

The 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum first opened in the expanded link building — between the 1932 and 1980 arenas — on Aug. 6, 1994. It had been about 10 years in the making and succeeded a short-lived museum on Saranac Avenue, which was open in the early 1980s. Eventually the name was shortened to the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. The newly reconstructed link building — now known as the Miracle Plaza — houses the new museum and Miracle Moments Store on the first floor and The Roamers bistro on the second floor, an homage to a former Lake Placid hockey team.

The Lake Placid Olympic Museum joined the Olympic Museums Network as its 32nd member just over a year ago, according to Collections Manager Julia Herman. It’s one of three Olympic museums in the U.S. to earn the distinction.

The museum’s renovation was three years in the making. Once Hadley Exhibits planned and designed the museum’s layout, museum staff — spearheaded by museum Director Alison Haas and Herman — assembled the artifacts in their rightful places. Herman said the museum has the second-largest collection of Winter Olympic artifacts in the world.

“Every last detail is thought of” in the museum’s redesign, Galanes said, because there are “so many stories to tell.” The museum started with an empty room and a one-page concept outline and grew to an interactive museum experience that Galanes said reaches beyond the exhibits and displays that now fill its rooms.

Two-time Olympic medalist Andrew Weibrecht, an Alpine skier from Lake Placid, smiles Dec. 7 at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum next to a photo of himself competing at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

She said a person who restored an Olympic medal for the museum refused to accept payment from Hadley Exhibits — he knew the medal would be displayed in a museum, and his three daughters are Olympic hopefuls.

–

The pin

–

Marketa Zayonc wandered through the museum’s exhibits on Dec. 7 with her son, Maxim. For Marketa, the exhibits reflected her own past — she and her husband are former Olympic lugers, and her husband competed in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Maxim found his father’s name on a placard in one of the exhibits.

“Miracle on Ice” exhibit at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum (News photo — Lauren Yates)

Originally from the Czech Republic, Marketa competed in luge for her home country during the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. She said being an Olympian was an “awesome journey” that eventually brought her to Lake Placid and its “beautiful (bobsled) track” at Mount Van Hoevenberg. She said Lake Placid is rich with Olympic tradition, and now she wants to pass that tradition on to her son.

He’s tried sliding a little bit, but he’s only 10 years old right now.

As Marketa and Maxim browsed through a collection of Olympic pins at the museum, she spotted one from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“I was there!” she said to Maxim. “That’s our pin!”

Marketa said that seeing the pin made her feel proud to be a part of the Olympic culture. She said she still has her Salt Lake City pin, and she told Maxim on Wednesday that she wanted to pass it on to him.

1932 Olympic Winter Games exhibit at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum (News photo — Lauren Yates)

–

The rings

–

A hidden piece of Lake Placid’s Olympic history was also unveiled with the museum on Dec. 7 — the original 1980 Olympic rings, which ORDA Communications Director Darcy Norfolk said have been in storage for years. They were mounted on the side of the Olympic Center building and lit for the first time that night.

Norfolk said Olympic Center staff recently brought the rings out of storage, dusted them off and, with some help from village employees, installed LED lighting to backlight the rings with the classic Olympic colors. After a series of speeches on Dec. 7 about the museum from state officials and museum board members and staff, the crowd of community members and officials gathered outside to watch the ceremonial lighting of the rings. Everyone erupted in applause as the rings were illuminated in blue, yellow, black, green and red.

–

The investment

–

ORDA Board of Directors Chair Joe Martens recognized the state’s increasing investments in ORDA’s capital budget over the last five years as crucial to the museum upgrades — the state has invested $550 million in ORDA’s venues through its capital budget over the last six years, according to Todd Westhuis, deputy director of state operations for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

“I’m tempted to say that this is another Lake Placid miracle,” Martens said of the museum opening, referencing the U.S. hockey team’s “Miracle on Ice” win over the Soviet Union during the 1980 Winter Olympics. “But it’s not a miracle — it took vision, determination, financial support, teamwork and a lot more.”

The state invested a total of $105 million in the Olympic Center upgrades, according to a Dec. 7 news release from Hochul’s office. Norfolk said on Dec. 8 that $1.4 million of that funding went to upgrading the museum.

–

The people

–

ORDA President and CEO Mike Pratt said on Dec. 7 that he was proud of the museum opening because he sees it as an accomplishment for everyone in the Lake Placid community. He reminisced about his years working in the Olympic Center’s ice rinks — spotlighting figure skating competitions and driving the Zamboni on the ice during the 1980 Winter Olympics. He said his takeaway from those memories is that the people behind the sports are what made the Olympic Center’s history — and Lake Placid’s sports culture — special.

“What really makes this place special is all the people,” Pratt said. “We’ve got tremendous natural resources, but it’s the people that make it special.”

The Lake Placid Olympic Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $15 for adults; $12 for military members, youth ages 7 through 19, and students with a student ID; $10 for groups of 20 or more people; and free for kids 6 and under.

More information about the Lake Placid Olympic Museum is available online at lakeplacidolympicmuseum.org.

Exhibit on U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum (News photo — Lauren Yates)

Figure skating exhibit at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum (News photo — Lauren Yates)