With Proper Social Distancing, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum Opens in Colorado Springs

On July 20 -- about Day 130 of the pandemic for Atlanta residents -- news arrived the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum would open its doors July 30, three months later than planned. 

Mostly cooped up and grounded from air travel since March 11, how could this wanderlusting five-ringed fan resist a last-minute trek to Colorado Springs for the occasion? 

With a new museum membership, airfare, accommodations and writing assignments secured by July 22, a week later I touched down at Denver International Airport and enthusiastically steered my rental car to the foothills of Pikes Peak. 

About 90 minutes later, with a highway-side welcome sign for Olympic City USA in view (Colorado Springs earned this nickname over the years), the arrival marked my first visit to old stomping grounds since Christmas 2003 and before that the summer of 1995. 

It's been 25 years since my June-to-August internship with USA Wrestling through the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and the U.S. Olympic Training Center is now completely overhauled from "back in the day." The military barracks that housed intern classmates and Atlanta Olympic hopefuls are long-gone, and with COVID-19, non-residents are not allowed, which freed more time for the main mission of the 2020 journey: discovering all available to visitors and members at #USOPMuseum.

Built just a few blocks from the USOPC's downtown offices, the USOPM main building and adjacent Flame Café complex run parallel to a stretch of active railroad tracks. I caught my first in-person glimpse of the white rectangle (or "pinwheel" as described by others) -- coated with a "skin" of more than 8,400 white-coated metal diamonds -- looking east from I-25, and the driveway approach to the building (facing west) puts the museum at the base of a nice vista including the Rocky Mountain range on the horizon.

The next morning I'd learn the site was chosen in a field of derelict warehouses, now cleared for future development. But first, more on the initial views as the sun was setting June 29.

I checked out the exterior on "opening eve" and found rows of empty folding chairs already in place for the Thursday morning ribbon cutting. Near the parking area, a handful of electricians connected wires for newly-installed exterior lights, and the executive chef (also named Nick) at Flame pointed out a few details, including a to-be-installed pedestrian bridge linking the museum to a city park just over the rails.  

From the outside, I lamented to my girlfriend by phone, the structure made me nervous for an antiseptic experience indoors. The building, for me, lacks the passion of, say, venues designed by Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid or Renzo Piano. Later research revealed the USOPM architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro also designed a functional yet milquetoast destination "The Shed" experienced last year in Manhattan -- it's beauty proved to be, for this writer, only skin deep. Would USOPM prove to be as soulless inside? Blah!

And I really did not want the USOPM to be "blah!" 

Fortunately, during two tours the next day (one as a media guest, the other as a museum member) yielded many great surprises (including the attention given to creating one of the most accessible collections anywhere). Building upon a published article written for Around The Rings, here are some detailed notes from the experience: 

In a ceremony replacing some typical pomp and circumstance with polite social distancing, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum officially opened to the public July 30 in Colorado Springs. Beneath the face masks, it seemed attendees were all smiles for an event more than eight years in the making.

"This museum will be an international destination for travelers," said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers in a pre-ceremony interview. "I think in the future when people think of [our city], they will want to visit our natural attractions and [USOPM] will be the No. 1 man-made attraction they experience."

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis joined Suthers, Olympic gold medalist Benita Fitzgerald Mosley and Paralympic silver medalist John Register in remarks for a few dozen invited VIPs before taking turns with giant gold scissors to snip blue, yellow, black, green and red ribbons.

By afternoon's end, more than 350 ticketed or annual membership visitors toured the three-level complex, exploring 12 galleries (about 60,000 square feet) featuring 460 artifacts, over 8,600 panels, dozens of interactive kiosks or other hands-on activities.

Through informal conversations, attendees shared universal praise for the museum's Gallery One display of 40 torches spanning 1936 to 2020 and the venue's final exhibit inclusive of 200 Olympic medals, book-ending the tour with rare, complete collections. 

Other Olympic and Paralympic medals, diplomas, credentials, uniforms, game-used equipment, personal journals and keepsakes also appear throughout the experience, which permits visitors to explore at their own pace. Special attention was given to provide accessibility and interactivity for all.

For each traditional display, visitors also engage through personalized radio frequency identification (RFID) credentials. Each electronic ticket to the museum -- worn with a USOPM lanyard -- includes a user-assigned QR code that activates automatically as guests approach displays or activities. Visitors also receive a museum-branded stylus for use with touch screens in dozens of locations, starting with a floor-to-ceiling series of U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame digital kiosks. 

From the lobby atrium, guests ascend three levels inside a glass-walled elevator featuring panoramic views of nearby Pikes Peak, the region's highest mountain. Steps off the lift, Paralympic and Olympic history feature prominently through all of the galleries and activities. 

In the first gallery, I was impressed by a jumbo U.S. map with stations enabling guests to search for Team USA Olympians by geography or other criteria. To progress to the next gallery there's a series of interior ramps that zigzag and gently descend, occasionally peeking down into the aforementioned atrium. 

As critical as I am about the architect's passionless interiors, this angular nod to Frank Lloyd Wright's circular, descending and naturally accessible features of his Guggenheim Museum design come to mind, and DS+R is to be commended for implementing input from Paralypians they surveyed to inform the firm's work.

The most interactive space for all ages is an "Athlete Training" section in which visitors may test their physical and mental skills at archery, athletics, alpine skiing, skeleton, goalball and sled hockey. Additionally, as with other interactive stops, the user experiences may be archived to an electronic "locker" later available for online viewing through the museum website.

Team USA athletes appear in video and interactive elements at many stops, notably in a section named "The Lab." Olympian Edwin Moses, for instance, narrates a section in regards to anti-doping regulations in elite sports, and Eric Heiden -- who became a physician following his gold medal feats at Lake Placid 1980 -- describes the physiology of high performance sport. 

The history, engineering and technology behind sports equipment also comes to life, especially through a clear-screen video series centered on Michael Johnson's custom-designed gold shoes created for his Atlanta 1996 competitions. For a sample, scroll to the base of this post for a video of the clear-screen video on view in "The Lab."

Guests also experience a simulated athlete stadium portal march into the opening ceremonies and view a 10-minute film produced by NBC highlighting the emotional valleys and peaks experienced by Team USA Olympians (not quite a new take on "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" but close). 

While the museum includes hundreds of very specific details, some displays paint broader strokes while acknowledging challenges for the Olympic Movement and Olympism. American athlete-turned-IOC president Avery Brundage's controversial decisions related to preventing a boycott of the 1936 Games, for instance, are touched delicately in his Hall of Fame bio and a wall-sized timeline of Olympic milestones presented in the context of world events. 

The same timeline glosses over Olympic boycotts, following a separate wall commemorating the 1980 U.S. Olympians who missed the Moscow Games thanks to President Jimmy Carter. On the main timeline, some of the U.S.-hosted Olympiads are briefly described, followed by mentions of LGBTQ-centric topics and doping at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, as well as the more recent scandal that touched the lives of hundreds of U.S. gymnasts. 

This section of the museum also dedicates a wall and glass case of keepsakes contributed by family members for one of the Israeli athlete victims at Munich 1972, but no mention of terrorism at the Atlanta Games nor the event's "largest peacetime gathering in history" status as the Centennial Olympic host. Be sure to read the letter signed by Milwaukee-born Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir. 

On a lighter note, a neighboring display features a Sam the Olympic Eagle mascot costume from Los Angeles 1984, and every breakfast cereal box that celebrated U.S. Olympian achievements. 

The museum includes a handful of site-specific works of art including a bronze sculpture titled "Olympus Within" created by Olympic fencer and artist Peter Schifrin for the main lobby entry. 

The museum's debut "Art of the Olympian" exhibition space features dozens of original paintings and sketches by American artist LeRoy Neiman (1921-2012), who was designated an official artist at five Olympic Games. After viewing his works and one of the artist's studio easels, visitors can strike an athletic pose to create a digital "Neimanized" image. 

I hope the curators intend future exhibitions on other "official" Olympic artists including Dallas-based Bart Forbes, who was tapped by the U.S. Postal Service for several five-ringed stamp designs, or Robert Peak, who created the iconic philatelic collection for the Games of 1984 (come to think of it, the museum did not have much in terms of numismatics, official posters, stamps nor pins -- there are a few of each, mind you, but nothing in depth by collector interest). 

The USOPM includes a modest event and meeting space featuring one side of the Lake Placid "Miracle On Ice" hockey scoreboard, as well as a nearby dining area named Flame Café, serving a seasonal menu and light breakfast or lunch fare. 

"So many museums are static. USOPM has fantastic displays but then you've got these incredible highly technological and interactive elements, like walking in the ceremonies or trying out sports, and the film is incredibly inspiring," said Suthers of his favorite USOPM elements. 

Is the USOPM worth a special trip to Colorado Springs? Absolutely! 

Did the building's design prove "soulless?" For this amateur architecture critic, yes (I've been dreaming of the passionate treatments Santiago Calatrava, Thomas Heatherwick or other aforementioned architects had a crack at the museum concepts). 

But the breadth of USOPM's content, built upon the heart and soul of Team USA athlete feats, more than makes up for mortar and rebar plainness. I look forward to return visits to experience the pedestrian bridge and see how the surrounding neighborhood takes shape. 

My other criticism of USPOM regards the technology. Not one but both of my "digital lockers" failed to archive stylus-tapped selections for later online study. Also lost to the tech, my collection of "Neimanized" unsaved after 30 minutes of patience and painstaking poses. First day glitches are to be expected, however -- let's hope they quickly busted the ghost in the machine. The customer service and media relations teams are to be commended for their efforts and time attempting to locate my lost images. 

During the media event and exits through the gift shop, I noted six Olympic pin designs related to the museum. There are two versions available at retail (generic logo and museum silhouette), with a couple of "staff only" versions in bronze, silver and gold created as a reward for completing pre-opening pop quizzes. 

There was a seldom-seen donor pin created for financial backers who purchased a "diamond" tile on the museum's facade (a fundraising program akin to the bricks at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta). These silver (and presumably numbered) diamond-shaped pins may or may not be available for those willing to drop a few grand. Finally, one rare prototype "ticket" pin was given to the No. 1 ticket purchaser on opening day (he was nice enough to let me photograph it). 

Some USOPM team members are fluent in pin trading while others are eager to learn, so be sure to bring a pocketful of traders as a conversation starter. 

My favorite surprises of the visit: Spotting an athlete-signed cast from an Olympian who broke his arm at one Games to return and win a medal four years later. The credential of an international athlete of the 1932 Lake Placid Games who was given accommodations but denied for competition since the immigration control at New York Harbor misspelled his name. Uniforms and Game-used equipment from several favorite athletes. And the takeaways from playing as goaltender in the Paralympic sport of goalball. 

I'd like to see the museum add an Olympic Order to its collection to honor the many U.S. Olympic contributions that earned this rarest of the IOC honors. 

They could pair the Order with the pair of blue suede shoes (see photo) donned by an athlete during their opening ceremony march for a head-to-toe in Games gear display. 

USOPM tickets are priced at $19.95 to $24.95 with annual memberships starting at $99. The museum is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with more information available via USOPM.org. 

Top photo by Jason O'Rear via Metalocus and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. All other photos by Wolaver.

USOTC Internship

Just stumbled upon the new U.S. Olympic Training Center summer intern blog. Looks like they are off to a great start with stories from the Olympic campus in Colorado Springs.

I, too, was a temporary USOTC resident via the intern class of '95 (summer). One fellow intern went on to achieve greatness at the American Junior Golf Association, and another is now married to a Major League Baseball player. Others are living the American Dream in California, New York (now an Emmy winner for Olympic coverage!) and even Vancouver. What a great summer it was, living just east of Pikes Peak!

Will be fun to recall the past intern glory days ("back in my day, we lived in some dated military barracks at the USOTC ...") while reading about the new Class of '09 adventures. Will also be interesting to see if the current class makes it to some of the past intern haunts (it appears some are the same while one of the most popular is now a car repair shop rather than a sports bar).

Dreamboat Annie

The rockin' sister duo Heart -- seen here with a cover shot by Annie Leibovitz circa 1980 -- has long been one of my favorite bands. I lose track -- either Heart or Don Henley provided my first outdoor rock concert experience (both played the glorious Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheatre during 1990), each serving as an upgrade follow-up to Janet Jackson's big show at the Myriad Convention Center that summer of 1990. Good times!

Though "Dreamboat Annie" is a great Heart tune, this blog entry is not really about music. The song's title is just a pseudo-clever starting point for another thread of Olympic connections that goes something like this:

Ann & Nancy Wilson -- Heart -- "Dreamboat Annie" -- Rolling Stone magazine -- Heart photo on cover of Rolling Stone (thanks, Google) -- cover photo by Annie Leibovitz -- Annie Leibovitz portrait photos -- Annie Leibovitz Olympic Project for Atlanta's 1996 Olympic Games -- Annie Leibovitz back in Atlanta on Dec. 10, 2008.

(The thread could also spin off, I suppose, with references to "It's A Hard-Knock Life" and such, but I digress.)

Last night in Atlanta, former Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz was in town showcasing her latest Random House book titled "Annie Leibovitz At Work" to a packed house in the cavernous main gymnasium of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA).

To me it was fitting that the world-famous photographer took the stage in a gym, since more than one segment of her live presentation (complete with wall-sized projections of some of her most famous photographs) referenced work with Olympic athletes.

Before delving into Leibovitz's presentation (see video), some notes about the book:

"Annie Leibovitz At Work" just hit bookstore shelves and includes 230 or so pages with about one iconic image for every three pages of text written from conversations Leibovitz shared with the book's editor, Sharon DeLano (though the text is written first person, I suspect DeLano did the lion's share of writing as, in person, Leibovitz seems to be a woman of few yet thoughtful words).

Of course, the book includes the famous images of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the Rolling Stones, a rose-covered Bette Midler, Meryl Streep, Whoopi Goldberg (in milk-filled bathtub), Demi Moore and Queen Elizabeth. Also featured are some stunning aerial shots of Monument Valley, dramatic war images from Sarajevo (site of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games -- one shot near the city's Olympic stadium included) and interesting family portraits that give some ideas for capturing loved ones on film during the holidays ... though none will be taken involving bathtubs full of milk). The accompanying text provides some brief or personal stories behind each image, or some general comments or tips on photographic technique. It's a fast read -- three Olympians appear (Carl Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Charles Austin).

So, back to Annie Leibovitz's presentation.

Leibovitz admitted in so many words that she is not a natural born public speaker. She shared some prepared remarks as an introduction before spending most of the event seated in a leather chair and reading directly from the text.

I was surprised and delighted that some of her most impromptu departures from the text came while describing work with nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, who she photographed just before the 1996 Games. Leibovitz used her story behind the photo to drive home two main points of the evening -- there are some shots that become part of history (capturing Lewis at his pre-Games peak as one example), and you should follow through on commitments even when you don't think you want to (she almost skipped photographing Lewis as he was not expected to medal in Atlanta -- a few weeks later he became only the third person to win nine gold medals).

What did not entirely surprise me (an explanation why begins in two paragraphs) is that Leibovitz remarked on the diversity of connections made with her portrait subjects to arrive at "the shot" -- her most vivid descriptions on this topic came while showcasing a range of photos of Arnold Schwarzenegger during his early career, Hollywood days and pre-political aspirations, as well as her memories of working with dancers and athletes (her new book includes notes from working with Olympic hurdler Edwin Moses that paint this picture).

Leibovitz closed the remarks by taking a few questions from the audience. I was next in line at the microphone, ready with a personal question for Annie, when she cut off the Q&A to start signing books (DANG!). Eventually, later in the evening, I did get to ask my question, "where was you photo of Olympic silver medal-winning wrestler Matt Ghaffari taken?"

Here is the back story to explain why I posed this question (Leibovitz's answer also follows):

When I was an intern at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs during the summer of 1995 (assigned to work in the public relations department at USA Wrestling), one morning I arrived at the USA Wrestling office to find a message from my boss. He said, in so many words, "There's some hot-shot photographer in town to take photos of a couple of [Atlanta Olympic-bound] wrestlers -- we need you to go with the wrestlers when the photographer comes to pick them up, and spend the day with the crew taking the photos."

As planned, a crew picked up the wrestlers (including Matt Ghaffari, an Iranian American who is one of the most genuine and coolest Olympians anywhere -- a real class act) and I to a public park with a massive green lawn and Pike's Peak looming to the west under a cloudless summer sky.

I was confused because there appeared to be two freshly placed dump truck loads of dirt -- one was sand, the other a darker clay -- recently poured on one flat expanse. The whole scene was punctuated with huge scaffolding covered with tarps, and a couple of ladders were in place. We were at the photographer's "studio" for the day. The photographer, of course, was Annie Leibovitz!

Leibovitz had a big crew and it was clear no expense was spared. Easily more than $100,000 went into this one setting as the dirt was used to create a wrestling venue inspired by ancient Olympic wrestling sites near Olympia, Greece, and the different shades of soil were trucked in to provide a range of hues for black and white Polaroids that Leibovitz started shooting as the wrestlers got going on the Terra firma.

I still have the business card for the Swatch public relations executive who was on site, presumably bankrolling the whole operation for what became Leibovitz's 1996 book titled "Olympic Portraits" (my good friend, Meghan, gave me a sweet Swatch featuring some of the photos from that book -- thanks, Meg).

Imagine my stunned surprise when, during our picnic lunch (arranged by Annie's intern and yours truly -- go, interns, go!) in the park, Leibovitz pretty much scrapped the entire "Greek dirt wrestling" set up because Ghaffari, the USA wrestler who went on to win silver in Atlanta, started telling Annie a very personal story about how as a boy his father taught him to wrestle by "pretending your opponent is a tree and you are trying to wrestle a tree out of the ground."

Leibovitz LOVED this -- you could see the wheels turning behind her tortoise-shell glasses as she asked Ghaffari to take hold of the oak trees under which we were lunching. After just a few more Polaroids we were all sent packing. Photo shoot's over, folks! So long, Annie Leibovitz.

The thing is, on that summer internship day in Colorado, I had NO CLUE -- ZERO -- who Annie Leibovitz was -- the entire day! The name did not ring a bell at all. For real. It was a day or two later, when I told a fellow intern or a family member about work that day in passing, that it finally registered "Holy Sh*t! That was that Annie Leibovitz!" I still cringe about my naïveté that day!

I also cringe because, as an intern on site at the photo shoot, I was asked to help collect all the trash and "Polaroid rejects" belched out of Annie's camera into the dirt. At one time my hands held dozens of "no good" photos staged and lost forever following Leibovitz's work on the ladders (I kick myself monthly on this point -- these shots would be extremely rare Annie Leibovitz originals now, and they are in some landfill instead of my apartment!).

I learned the following year, when the Leibovitz Olympic book debuted at an Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) press conference at The INFORUM in Atlanta, that Leibovitz wound up re-shooting Ghaffari wrestling trees at another location later in 1995. As an ACOG staff member, I was in attendance at the packed press event, and tried to pose the question at a cut-short Q&A there, too -- until yesterday it was my understanding the final Ghaffari wrestling trees portrait was snapped at Midtown Atlanta's Piedmont Park, down the street from my current residence.

The answer, after 12 years: Annie Leibovitz does not remember!

While she signed a copy of "Annie Leibovitz At Work" she answered my question with a friendly and frank reply that they did re-shoot the "wrestling trees" at a later date, but she was not sure when or where. She offered a sincere thank you and handshake during our brief reunion (she has, by the way, some of the most graceful, large and strong hands of any handshake in recent memory) she asked about Ghaffari and how he is doing, perhaps signalling that although he was not the most famous celebrity in her repertoire, a connection was made that day in Colorado Springs.

She did not remember me, so it seems we're "even" on naïveté about each other (ha-ha).

I appreciate Annie Leibovitz taking time to answer one more question -- this one for the Flip Video camera -- just after signing the last of thousands of books sold at last night's MJCCA event.

The question: Would she take on another Olympic project in the future?

The answer (see video) yielded a surprise -- Leibovitz apparently was supposed to attend the Atlanta Games but was denied access near the last minute. It's tough to read whether she remains miffed about this fact (will let you, video viewers, draw your own conclusions).

It is my hope the future will in fact bring Olympians into focus for Leibovitz's craft (if Swatch is out there reading, let's see what you can get in the works for Vancouver 2010 or London 2010, OK?).