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

Few places in the United States, if any, exude as much Olympic pride as Lake Placid. Deep in the Adirondacks, the small town stands as a focal point of Olympic Winter Games legacy. With such a rich history to sift through, visitors may have a hard time fully grasping the importance of this village’s impact on the Olympics and vice versa.

Enter the Lake Placid Olympic Museum, located at the Olympic Center between the 1932 and 1980 arenas.

“I think it’s a really exciting time to be part of the Olympic Museum, to be able to celebrate this history and also to learn more about it,” Museum Director Courtney Bastian said.

The museum is currently celebrating the centennial of the 1924 Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix, France, where Lake Placid speedskater Charles Jewtraw won the first-ever gold medal in the Winter Olympics. Since 1924, Lake Placid and the surrounding region has sent an athlete to every Olympic Winter Games.

The Lake Placid Olympic Museum opened in 1984 but has since undergone substantial renovations. From the moment I stepped foot onto the sidewalk outside to the moment I walked through the museum doors and into the first exhibit room, I was met with sophisticated modernity.

Lake Placid Olympic Museum Director Courtney Bastian explains local history from one of the exhibits. (News photo — Oliver Reil)

The “new museum” as Bastian described the 2022 renovated space, is a fresher look at Lake Placid’s Olympic history. The floor and ceilings are black, bringing focus to the exhibit-adorned walls on either side. First, we came to the Jewtraw exhibit, which showcases a replica of his 1924 gold medal. The real medal was formerly on loan to the museum but is now back at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Walking further through the quiet halls, we came to an exhibit showcasing the origin of winter sports in Lake Placid. Photos of the Lake Placid Club, founded in 1895, reveal an era long passed. One of the club’s founders was Melvil Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal System. They had their own winter sports organization, the Sno Birds, with teams competing in events such as skiing, skating, bobsledding and ski jumping.

Across the hall were items from the 1932 Olympic Winter Games, which Lake Placid hosted during the height of the Great Depression. Bastian explained that Godfrey Dewey, son of Melvil, traveled to St. Moritz, Switzerland, for the 1928 Olympic Winter Games to learn about them and what it would take to host in Lake Placid.

Once awarded the games, Lake Placid built North America’s first bobsled run at Mount Van Hoevenberg, a speedskating oval and the stadium for opening and closing ceremonies in front of the school and an indoor arena.

Bastian and I went on to the museum’s speedskating, hockey and figure skating exhibit, which showcased Norwegian Sonja Henie, who debuted as an Olympic figure skater at the 1924 Games at 11 years old. At the time, figure skating was the only event in which women could compete. She placed last that year but went on to win gold at the next three Olympics, including the 1932 games in Lake Placid.

Local athletes who competed in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing are showcased at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. (News photo — Oliver Reil)

Around the corner, we came to a black room filled with lit glass cases.

“This is my favorite room in the museum,” Bastian said.

The first wall is loaded with official posters from the Olympic Winter Games. In the center of the room, a tall case holds different Olympic torches. Each one is vastly different from the other, representing different cultures and histories. Norway’s torch sits at the center of the case; a long, tall wooden torch with a metal end, symbolic of Norwegian ships. Bastian said Lake Placid had 52 torch bearers — 26 men and 26 women — one from each of the 50 states, as well as one from Washington, D.C. and one from Lake Placid for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

In the next room, we came to the 1980 exhibit. Two large exhibits stood out in the room, representing massive U.S. accomplishments at the games.

We came first to a wall dedicated to speedskater Eric Heiden’s legendary Olympic legacy. At the 1980 games, he won a gold medal in each of the five events, which Bastian said has never happened before. Heiden’s sister Beth also competed and took home a bronze medal with an injured ankle.

Exhibit at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. (News photo — Oliver Reil)

The next — and perhaps most memorable — U.S. achievement that year was the “Miracle on Ice” game, when the underdog U.S. ice hockey team defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in the semifinals. Tensions were high between the two nations as the Soviet Union had recently invaded Afghanistan, triggering President Jimmy Carter to enact sanctions and publicly announce that he would not support sending American athletes to the Summer Olympics in Moscow.

The Soviet Union had taken gold in hockey at the last four consecutive Olympics, and the U.S. hadn’t won since 1960.

Team USA went on to defeat Finland 4-2 in the gold-medal game, after which they were flown by Carter to the White House to celebrate.

I left the Lake Placid Olympic Museum with a sense of place that I did not have before walking in. I didn’t grow up in Lake Placid, and though I’ve always been aware of its Olympic legacy, I had no idea the scale to which it has permeated history. Now, after a brief tour, I do.