The 2020 Olympics were pushed to 2021, but fans of the games can get their fill starting on July 30. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum is set to open its doors in Colorado Springs at the end of the month and it will feature a tribute to the 1980 hockey team that won a gold medal.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum will feature 12 different exhibits that will be focused on athlete training in addition to the Summer and Winter Olympics.
According to the Associated Press, the idea for the project originally came to fruition in 2012 when Olympic leaders wanted to have the first Olympic museum located in the United States. It took three years to complete the construction project of the museum.
Olympic leaders were expecting 350,000 annual visitors to the new museum, but those numbers will be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. There will be social distancing measures put in place when it opens and a limited number of people will be allowed in the museum at one time. Visitors will be able to pick their favorite Olympic athlete or sport and a chip will be embedded into their ticket upon entrance, so that content related to that specific athlete or sport will come up when they visit certain exhibits.
The AP also reports that the project cost an estimated $91 million to complete, which is $15 million more than originally expected.
The "Miracle on Ice" team is one of the most legendary stories when it comes to the Olympics in the United States. The Americans upset the juggernaut Soviet Union 4-3 in a medal round game. The Soviet Union had won gold medals in four consecutive Olympic Games coming into the 1980 installment.