Colorado Springs, Colorado has become a training ground for top figure skaters. Therefore, It's a natural home for this outstanding museum that chronicles the sport.

Both accomplished skaters and people who can’t tell a triple salchow from a double axel will enjoy the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.

The museum (20 First Street, 719-635-5200) -- which graphically chronicles the history of ice skating from the carved-bone runners of twelve centuries ago to the shining steel blades that today’s top skaters (or their parents) pay hundreds of dollars to buy – is encyclopedic and the only one of its kind in the world.

The Main Gallery

Located in Colorado Springs, an affluent community 75 miles south of Denver, Colorado, the museum’s main gallery highlights the skating greats – gold medal winners of Winter Olympics and world championships. You’ll see their photos, costumes and some of their medals -- from before the days of Sonja Heinie to the 2006 Olympic competition in Torino, Italy..

Skating-related Art

The big surprise is the museum’s wealth of skating-related art. A painting of Dorothy Hamill by Andy Warhol, an oil painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder and the joyful “Gay Blades” by Norman Rockwell (created by the artist both as a painting and in porcelain) are on display. German and French lithographs, etchings and hand-colored copper engravings – most of them from the 19th Century, decorate the walls.

On the museum’s lower level, one of the most colorful exhibits contains a showcase and six drawers full of thousands of mint-condition enamel pins that commemorate the Winter Olympics, other ice skating competitions and team pins of figure skating clubs around the world.

Instructional Videos

Non-skating visitors can learn about the sport by watching videos, such as one by Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton (1984), in which he explains and demonstrates everything you need to know about competition jumps. The museum also contains a library, with extensive archives. Volunteers, many of whom are collectors of figure skating memorabilia, are additional sources of information.

For shoppers, the museum store offers a wide variety of skating-related items. In addition to books, posters and videos, the shop carries everything from contemporary jewelry and work-out clothes to figurines garbed in 19th Century skating costumes.

World Arena Ice Hall

After you have visited the museum, you may want to drop in at the World Arena Ice Hall to watch the area’s figure skaters as they practice their spins and jumps. Families of up-and-coming skaters often move to Colorado Springs so they can take advantage of the facility. Frequent evening performances, which are free and open to the public, feature skaters from novices to top-competitors.