Daa. Daa. Da dah da dah dah. Bum bum ba bum. bum bum ba badda bum bum bum. Sorry the Olympic fanfare horns are trumpeting in my head and I have to get it out. Excite builds as we approach the Lillehammer Olympic museum. In my head, I see Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding and Oksana Baiul in an epic (post wrench to the knee) show down. Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair also blur past in my mind on their golden skates.

I am so busy remembering Olympic glory that I fail to notice that there is no way to cross the barriers to get to the Olympic center which is now on the other side of the elevated roadway. So we backtrack.

The Olympic museum is part of a larger museum Maihaugen complex in Lillehammer. One ticket is good for the entire day. There are houses, forests, and lakes. But first, the Olympics await.

The first gallery traces the Olympics from its roots in Ancient Greece. We learn about the naked ancient Olympics. We also learn that the founder and champion of the modern Olympics was a French man, Pierre de Coubertin, a cheerleader for sports in education. He served as the first president of the International Olympic Committee.

The next galleries allow us to relive the opening ceremony including the dramatic ski jump lighting of the Olympic cauldron. A variety of Olympic torches are on display for comparison to the massive ski jump torch. Nearby is a display of weird mascots of the Winter Olympics.

The main galleries are dedicated to the Norwegian Olympians. Not an American athlete in sight. I chuckle at my American assumptions. I learn about the Norwegian successes in sports that they literally invented, like ski jumping and biathlon. I try my hand at the biathlon simulator. Let’s just say I am not a contender.

We spend time reading about competitors and examining their equipment. Most of the athletes I have never heard of or maybe I forgot I had heard of them (as they would always be introduced as a potential foil for American athletes on U.S. Olympic coverage).

One athlete I recognize is Sonia Henie. A figure skater from a time when competition was about form and elegance and less about physical jumps and feats of strength. A celebrity at home and abroad, Henie used her fame to benefit Norway. She is beloved.

The center also has highlights from the Oslo Winter Olympics. I watch grainy film clips from the 1950’s and don’t recognize some of the earlier forms of sport. How far we have come. Looking at the equipment from earlier times, I am still mystified at how ski jumping ever became a popular pass time. Having visited the top of the Holmenkollen jump in Oslo and now walking to the Lillehammer jump, I know that this is one sport I will never attempt. It would, however, be very exciting to watch.

After a long walk up hill and past the remains of the Olympic Village (now a modern student housing complex), we sit on a rock in a farmer’s field at the foot of the massive jump arena and imagine what the Olympic crowd would have been like. Nearby the speed skating arena glistens in the Spring sun. Soccer parks line the lower fields and a beautiful waterfall cascades down through the park.

An idyllic setting to remember the glory of the Winter Olympics 1994 in Lillehammer Norway. I bet it was magical.