The Olympic Museum in Lake Placid should be a required stop for all sports fans in New York State. A real landmark in the history of the Olympics and, in particular, the Winter Games. The facility opened in 1994 as a tribute to the two editions hosted by the city in 1932 and 1980. Over time, it has become a must-see destination for those who love everything about the Olympics.
The Olympic Museum in Lake Placid
Located between the Jack Shea Arena - which hosted the 1932 Games - and the Herb Brooks Arena - one of the venues of the 1980 Olympics -, it houses over 30,000 objects that tell the story of those Games. From a small mining town in Essex County with just over two thousand residents, Lake Placid went on to become a tourist attraction for many sports enthusiasts.
This story begins with Melvil Dewey, who founded the Lake Placid Club and sold skis, toboggans and other equipment to tourists, to have fun in the snow. The gamble of hosting the Olympic Winter Games came from his son, Godfrey, who, after attending St. Moritz 1928 and began to indulge in the idea of bringing them home. The yes vote came in 1932: a hockey and skating rink was built indoors for the first time, allowing competitions to be held even in unfavourable weather conditions. The 1932 Olympics were the first to have a podium for the first three places.
The Legend of Eddie Eagan
The history of Lake Placid is inextricably linked to that of one of the greatest athletes in the history of - American and international - sport, who goes by the name of Eddie Eagan. Let's travel back in time to 1920, at the Antwerp Olympics. Eddie was born in Denver in 1897, and, despite growing up in a working-class family, his scholastic talent opened him the doors to Yale and Harvard. He already had a passion for boxing, and, after a military stint with the US artillery in World War I, Eddie made it to the Olympics. In 1920, he won the gold medal in middleweight.
Let's move forward to 1932: Egan was invited by his friend Jay O'Brien to join the American bobsleigh team - gold in St. Moritz 1928 - captained by another legend, Billy Fiske. Without ever having ridden a bobsleigh before, Eddie with Fiske, Clifford Gray and O'Brien won the gold medal at Lake Placid 1932.
Eagan is part of a very small club of athletes who won medals at both the Winter and Summer Games: only Jacob Tullin Thams (ski jumping and sailing), Christa Luding (speed skating and track cycling), Clara Hughes (speed skating and road cycling) and Lauryn Williams (4x100 relay and bobsleigh) have managed this amazing feat. However, Eddie is the only athlete in history to have won gold in both Games editions, a record that earned him induction into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.
Memorabilia and Interactivity
More than 30,000 objects are on display at the Lake Placid Museum: from brooches to posters, to the clothes worn by athletes during the Olympic Games. Lots of photographs to tell the Olympic story and the epochal transition from one historical period to the next.
There is also room for fun and interactivity with a space called "What it takes to be an Olympian" in which visitors can experience - via simulators - the thrill of certain disciplines such as bobsleigh, ski jumping and skating. The Olympic story does not stop at the editions hosted in the US city: it traces a path from the first Athens Games, through Paris 2024 to Milano Cortina 2026.
Stay tuned for real-time news on the run-up to Milano Cortina 2026 via tickets.milanocortina2026.org.
Experience all the excitement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in person: see you soon!
