Last week, I had the pleasure to visit Lake Placid, New York, home to the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics Games. While there, I got a chance to visit the ice rinks where the Games took place, including the historical 1980 victory over Soviet Union in ice hockey. Here are a few of the pictures that I took along the way:
The first image displayed shows some of the flags from countries that participated in the event, which was outside of the facility.
1932 Rink
The next two pictures show the ice sheet that the games were played on, the seats, and the scoreboard.
The United States finished second place in the tournament behind Canada.
1980 Rink
The first image below shows the net where American goaltender Jim Craig made 39 saves in their 4-3 victory over the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980 to advance to the gold medal game, also known as “Miracle On Ice.” Behind the net is part of the end boards used in that contest. A clearer look at the board can be found in the following picture.
The bottom skate is the one that Craig wore during the tournament. The one above was worn by Beth Heiden, who won the bronze medal during the women’s 3000-meter race at those Olympics.
The next image takes place in the hallways of Herb Brooks Arena, where the United States took down the Soviets and the rest of the ice hockey games occurred.
You can find the menu featuring the food and drinks that the arena offered 42 years ago for the games below:
Now, let’s get to the good stuff. Here are some looks at the ice sheet, banners, and seats in Herb Brooks Arena:
By Harrison Brown
Very cool! Thanks for sharing. 🎸👍
Very Cool pictures. Did you get any of the locker rooms? The USA locker room has a Herb Brooks plaque I remember. The other locker rooms have a sign showing the country with the rosters printed. The 1980-style locker room was very basic by today’s standards. Thanks for sharing. Lake Placid and the rink itself are neat places to visit.
Unfortunately did not get to go in there.
Beautiful place indeed.
Interesting J. I need to see that too.
If anyone wants to watch great documentary on’80 Olympics, ESPN 30 for30 “Of Ice And Men” is about Olympics from Soviet perspective. Regardless of your feelings of current invasion of in to other countries gives great insite into Soviet hockey program & what became most successful era in Soviet hockey.
Most interesting part was Val Fetisov took his daughter to visit arena,and when they went to Russian dressing room his daughter sat in specific spot,he immediately asked her why she sat thier? She responded “don’t know !”, he said that’s exact spot I sat in during US game!!
Agree with this. Well worth a watch.