- 27
- 07
- 2020
- Category:
- Service & Advocacy
Honoring and Celebrating Team USA at the new US Olympic and Paralympic Museum
By David E. Shaw
It’s an enormously motivational experience for us to honor and celebrate remarkable achievements of US Olympic and Paralympic athletes, Team USA, at the new US Olympic and Paralympic Museum (USOPM) in Colorado Springs.
As a founding member of the USOPM board of directors, I’m pleased to share that USOPM will open to the public on July 30, 2020. The 60,000-square-foot museum designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro is located in Colorado Springs, known as Olympic City USA. It is the first Olympic museum in the United States and is considered to be one of the most accessible and interactive museums in the world.
The USOPM team has designed an experience that offers a holistic glimpse into the journey of remarkable athletes, with Team USA at the center. It is full of stories, artifacts, media, and technology reflecting the core values of the Olympic and Paralympic movements including friendship, respect, excellence, determination, equality, inspiration, and courage. An important goal is to inspire and ignite the hopes and dreams of future athletes while celebrating the accomplishments of those who came before.
The opening comes amidst the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and also during the 40th anniversary of the Moscow Olympics, which were boycotted by the U.S. team in a government protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Many of the athletes who had qualified for the 1980 team never got another chance to compete at the Olympics. Decades later, they are being honored at USOPM in a first-of-its-kind tribute to the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
Our announcement of the opening can be viewed here:
The museum has attracted global attention as a travel destination, including these examples in Travel and Leisure Magazine and news networks:
David Shaw with USOPM CEO Chris Liedel 
