Lake Placid Olympic Museum to Celebrate Opening of New Permanent Exhibit

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LAKE PLACID, adirondacks usa – The Lake Placid Olympic Museum, located in the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, New York, is excited to announce the opening of their new, permanent exhibit, Quest for Speed.  The exhibit explores a speed skater’s quest for speed at the Olympic Games and how from the training of an athlete to having the right blade on the ice, needs to come together at the most perfect moment. 

This exhibit will engage visitors through the use of a timeline showcasing the design evolution of speed skating equipment, interactive activities, and graphic text panels sharing a glimpse into the mind of some of speed skating’s greatest.  Olympic athletes highlighted include: Charles Jewtraw; Jack Shea; Valentine Bialas; Jeanne Ashworth; Bonnie Blair; Apolo Ohno; and Eric Heiden. 

Museum Manager, Alison Haas says, “I am excited to share with our visitors never before seen interview footage with Eric Heiden, five-time Olympic gold medalist from 1980, along with local Junior National competitors demonstrating the mental and physical skills needed to achieve success.”  

An additional interactive video features a scrapbook from 1916-1925 revealing the story of how Lake Placid became a mecca for winter sports.  The scrapbook belonging to Henry Uihlein allows visitors to explore  a sample of its pages and discover his passionate support for the region’s early speed skaters, as Lake Placid takes its first steps onto the Olympic stage when Uihlein brought the village’s first International event in 1920, the International Outdoor Speed Skating Championships.  

Quest for Speed was designed by Drew Harty of Galene Studios in Treadwell, New York and was funded by the Henry Uihlein II and Mildred A. Uihlein Foundation.

To celebrate the exhibit, a reception will be held at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum on Monday, May 23, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.  For more information about this exhibit and the stories of speed skating in Lake Placid, please visit the Lake Placid Olympic Museum on Main Street.  The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

About Lake Placid Olympic Museum

The mission of the Lake Placid Olympic Museum is to tell the world about the Olympic movement and Lake Placid’s rich winter sports’ history in order to promote the values of Olympism to the broadest possible audience.  The museum and its collections is governed by the Lake Placid Olympic Museum board of trustees and is a 501 c3 corporation.  For more information about the museum, visit: www.lpom.org.