In what his fellow players described as an emotional locker room ceremony, Khabibulin was presented with the gold medal he earned as a backup goalie in 1992 but was appropriated by coach Viktor Tikhonov.
"It felt great," said Khabibulin, who was given the medal by Russian hockey federation officials and coach Slava Fetisov at practice Thursday night. "It's been a long 10 years but, finally, I got it. What's done is done."
Khabibulin, now an All-Star goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning, was a 19-year-old backup goalie who did not play in any games at Albertville for the Unified Team that represented the former Soviet Union.
Khabibulin was not about to challenge Tikhonov, the most revered hockey coach in Russian history and the man who assembled the famed Soviet Union teams that dominated amateur ice hockey for 20 years.
But the stolen medal bothered Khabibulin over the years, and it is believed to be the main reason he declined to play for Russia in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.
Fetisov began lobbying the International Olympic Committee for the replacement medal after he became Russia's 2002 Olympic coach.
Khabibulin said the medal appears to be brand new -- "I've got to get a safe for it," he said.
"You should have seen his face. He was smiling. He was happy," Fetisov said. "His first question was, 'Where am I going to store this? I don't want to lose it again.'
"I think there's a great deal of justice in this."
"Now that I've got it [the 1992] medal, I'm focused on getting another one -- and going home with two gold medals," Khabibulin said.
Canada, the United States, Russia and the defending champion Czech Republic are the strongest contenders for gold.
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