The scoreboard from the 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey game hangs proudly on the top floor of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum, along with dozens of other Winter Olympics artifacts. 

Soon, they will be joined by more from the upcoming 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games that begin Feb. 4 with the opening ceremony set for Feb. 6. 

Two museum employees, Lindsay Huben and Oriana Va’i, will be on-site for the entirety of the Olympics to collect artifacts to put on display at Team USA’s “Ice House,” and then bring them back to the museum for Colorado Springs residents and visitors to enjoy. 

“We will be building a progressive exhibit over the games,” Huben, chief content and integration officer at the museum, said. “The museum has never had a presence at the games before, so for us to be on site and working directly with (national governing bodies) and athletes to source artifacts for display is really exciting.”

The museum will also provide medal care kits for U.S. medalists at the Winter Games. 

The Ice House in Milan is the hospitality house for Team USA figuring skating, hockey, and speed skating. U.S. Figure Skating and USA Hockey, known as national governing bodies (NGBs), are both based in Colorado Springs, making it easy for the museum to collaborate with them to collect artifacts. 

“We have been working with NGBs to identify the athletes we want to work with,” Huben said. “The NGBs and press officers have been fantastic throughout the process. We have a wish list, and as athletes finish competitions, we will collect the artifact, do a little interview, and put it on display.”

Huben explains that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum is focused on game-used artifacts, meaning the items they are looking for will come directly from Olympic competition, such as a glove, hockey stick, or hairpiece. 

“We would love for people to watch the Games, see them using or wearing them, and then come to the museum to see them in person,” Va’i, an archival specialist for the museum, said. 

Huben and Va’i are looking forward to all competitions, but are particularly interested in hockey, with NHL players being allowed back in the Olympics for the first time in over a decade. Besides hockey, they also look forward to watching U.S. figure skater Alysa Lui and speed skater Jordan Stolz. 

“There is no shortage of really fantastic Team USA athletes,” Huben said.

Huben and Va’i will bring three Olympic torches from the museum –Beijing 2022, Paris 2024, and L.A. 1984 – to display at the Ice House, but will change them out with the artifacts collected throughout the games. 

However, there is already an artifact from the Winter Olympics en route to the museum: a torchbearer uniform donned by Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Hirshland was one of 10,001 torchbearers participating in the torch relay that began Nov. 26 and will conclude on Feb. 6 in Milan. 

Visitors can see the uniform while the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum is open seven days a week during the Winter Games. 

The museum will also host a variety of activities in Colorado Springs, such as an opening ceremony watch party at 12:30 p.m. MT on Friday, Feb. 6, and the free Downtown Winter Fest presented by the Colorado Springs Sports Corp on Feb. 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Winter Fest will feature a meet-and-greet with Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin and four-time Paralympian Danelle Umstead. 

The museum has several upcoming new exhibits this year, including the artifacts collected from Milano Cortina. 

“We are so excited to have this opportunity, not just to go to the Olympics in this capacity but to be in a position to be able to preserve the victories and triumphs and stories of the members of Team USA,” Huben said. “That legacy is something all Americans can share and appreciate.”