OT: Favorite Olympic Memories
Hey Sports Fans,
Opening ceremonies will be happening tonight in S. Korea (happening live at 6AMEST tomorrow morning) and I am so excited about this.
I just want to hear your guys' favorite Olympic memories -- either summer or winter athletic or not.
The one that takes the cake for me is Muhammad Ali lighting the torch in Atlanta. I was an undergrad at the university and remember sitting with my roommates watching that. Great moment in history.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
1) Michael Johnson's 200M win in Atlanta
2) US Hockey's tying goal against Canada in Vancouver
3) Every second of the Dream Team
February 8th, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^
Katarina Witt
February 8th, 2018 at 3:52 PM ^
Mmmmmm.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
Franz Klammer in the 1976 Austria Olympic Downhill. Guy was flying and out of control half the time but won gold.
I have the usual USA ones, like Miracle on ice, but this one was awesome.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
That downhill was awesome. Everytime there is a relpay, I think he is going to crash.
February 8th, 2018 at 5:45 PM ^
As pointed out it looked like he was skiing on the edge of disaster which added to the dramatic tension. Contrast his run with Jean Claude Killy at Grenoble in 1968. Killy looked super smooth and as a result it didn't seem as fast.
February 8th, 2018 at 7:01 PM ^
Speaking as another old guy who remembers Klammer's "I don't care if I live anymore" flight down that hill, I still think he only had one ski on the course half the time. Fantastic.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^
I was going back in my mind, Olympics to Olympics, and I realized one of my favorite moments is one that's almost completely forgotten now: Dave Wottle winning the 800 meters at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
http://news.runtowin.com/2010/08/20/dave-wottle-1972-800m.html
It's well worth a look.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^
another great one. Still makes me clench the ol' buttcheeks in that last 500. I love the commentary: "he got married...some people said he shouldn't have gotten married, it would ruin him!"
Should've listened to that same advice with my first go at marriage. If its good enough for an olympian should've been good enough for me
February 8th, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^
Brian Jamieson silver medal in the quad '96. Met him as MS/PhD candidate at Michigan. Great guy.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
Watching henrik Zetterberg playing for Team Sweden in the 2002 Olympics knowing that he would be a Red Wing when he played in the NHL.
He was so much fun to watch in the Olympics.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
But watching greatness in obscure winter sports always sticks with me. Speed skaing and short track. Cross country skiing and biathalon. Curling. I have all of these little moments as my biggest winter sports memories.
One of my favorite memories was waking up in the middle of the night, still half drunk, to watch USA Hockey vs. Russia in 2014. TJ Oshie just owning the shootout.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
I've had the pleasure of spending a week in Lake Placid (2002?), and visited the rink. All of the Olympic venues are, more or less, open to the public for visiting. You can walk through the hockey rink, along with both of the side rinks. The trademark blue ice is still there, and they drop the snow pile from the Zambonie machine in front of the building placard - so there is always a fresh snow pile around it.
I walked down the bobsled track (you can get rides on some days). Climbed up to the top of the 90m skijump platform (helluva view). Watched the freestyle skiing team do jumps off the hill into a pool (cheap astro-turf covers very well for a nice snow hill). And rode the ski lift to the top of Whiteface Mt. All in all, I'd recommend a trip to Lake Placid, its a beautiful place.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
NOTHING compares to "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES???!!!??"
It was an upset of unimaginable proportion and just remembering back to it gives me chills.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^
i was 8 at the time and i don’t think i’ll ever forget it. still love the olympics to this day because of that
February 8th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^
I am old enough to have seen many Olympics over the years. There are lots of memories, but here are a few that stand out for me. I'm sticking with Winter Olympics today.
- Miracle on Ice. I was a student at Michigan at the time, and remember watching this in my fraternity house with a bunch of the guys. That week the Olympics were on in the Frat house all the time. It was an incredible game to watch live.
- Katarina Witt. She may have not been the best in terms of the number of revolutions on her jumps, but to be honest, who cares? I mean, the judges do. But she had the personality and charisma that is often lacking. Her skating was never mechanical and wooden. And she looked somewhat normal. Obviously, not normal. But she wasn't a tiny wisp of a girl, but a full grown, beautiful woman.
- Peggy Fleming in 1968. This one stands out for personal r3asons. Why? Because it is one of my earliest TV memories as a boy, in my childhood home in Chicago. It was a big black and white TV, and the resolution was low. Nothing like the incredible High Definition sets we're all used to now. But still, her artistry and talent were there to see.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^
I remember watching in 1988 and she really did steal the show with presence as a personality even if her skating might not have been the most technically remarkable in the very wide field that was in Calgary that year. What I always found interesting was that when she went professional, East Germany - which was still a thing at the time - had to make some allowances because being a professional athlete was, shall we say, a difficult thing to achieve in East at the time (very few exceptions were made - professional opportunities in sport were largely determined by political loyalty, as I recall).
February 8th, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^
"
- Miracle on Ice. I was a student at Michigan at the time, and remember watching this in my fraternity house with a bunch of the guys. That week the Olympics were on in the Frat house all the time. It was an incredible game to watch live."
I seem to remember real, good olympic coverage on at night, on network TV. I really miss that. I could be wrong, but it seems like in the 80's and maybe early 90's you'd see skiing, luge, Bobsled, etc. at night, or rebroadcast from earlier in the day. It wasn't all just skating (skating is fine. All skating sucks) and it was on for most of the night.
Then it became all skating in the winter. And then it became just cable. Too bad.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^
I completely agree with you that I don't like the current coverage. I really wish they were able to have a lot more coverage on network TV during the day. Back during the Miracle, the game was actually during the day, and not prime time. But I recall a wide variety of coverage available throughout the day, not just during prime time hours. I guess since I've never daytime gossip shows, and daytime soap operas, it doesn't affect me to have those shows take a break. Maybe the demographic watching NBC Today in the morning, or game shows, or soap operas, is very lucrative and gets upset if there are luge races or bobsled or cross country skiing or snow boarding or biathalon or curling or ski jumping. But I love seeing some of the sports that the US rarely medals in, the true "Olympic sports" that don't get all the coverage and fame.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:16 PM ^
Seriously, watch NBCSN this week--all day every day. They are going to show Olympics every day from 8 pm to 3 pm the next day--that's 19 straight hours every single day, as much of it live as physically possible. Plus the other 5 hours of the day will be highlights. The fact that it's NBCSN instead of NBC? Who cares, right?
You will literally be able to see the finals of every single sport on either NBCSN or NBC, in pretty much their entirety.
People who criticise NBC's coverage are criticising NBC's coverage of the 1994 Olympics and haven't actually paid attention since.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^
I agree here. I hated the tape-delay only stuff that used to happen, soured me on the whole event (I barely watched Sydney at all).
But since then things have improved considerably. The NBC cable stations all show live events, and while they still hold some crucial stuff for primetime, every event of every sport is available for livestream. They've been doing this well since 2008, and it gets better every year.
Want to watch Korea vs China in mixed doubles curling? You can stream it live. Want to watch the first run of women's giant slalom? You can stream it live. Want to watch the short programs of figure skaters that won't make the top ten and nobody has heard of? You can stream it live.
I wish there were better announcers here and there (should've gotten Vic Rauter for curling!) but the available coverage is sensational.
NBC got rightly criticized 10-20 years ago for how they covered things; they've fixed it.
February 8th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
"It was an incredible game to watch live." Note: You did not watch it live. Not in Ann Arbor, at least. The game started at about 5 pm and ended at about 7:15, and ABC showed it on tape delay from 8:30 to 11 pm...and--note that nobody seems to realize this--they did not show the game in its entirety. They cut out a few parts of it.
It was shown live on CTV (not CBC Channel 9) out of Sarnia, but there was no way in the world that you could get that on a television set in Ann Arbor. Believe me, I tried. I heard the end of the game live over WJR when they let some caller from Port Huron announce the last couple of minutes of the game over the air, probably violating 50 different national and international copyright agreements.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:08 PM ^
it was in french and i translated as much as i could for dad and one of my brothers. goose bumps. we watched on a small color TV in our tiny little 'library'.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^
Channel 42, Sarnia--CTV. You couldn't get that in Ann Arbor, at least not where I was in AA. And it wasn't on the Ann Arbor cable system either.
If you were watching, you were probably closer to Metro Detroit than I was.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^
Sidney Crosby's Golden Goal in Vancouver broke my heart. That Team USA was a really, really good team and the late goal in the 3rd to tie it made it feel like it was destiny that Team USA was going to win the Gold in OT. Still heartbroken thinking about it now.
I'll also never forget Dan Jansen finally winning a medal and Gold at that in '94. I was 12 but for some reason, I can never forget it.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
As soon as he got the pass off the boards, I knew he'd score. It was one of those moments where it just crashed down, and you thought 'no, not him - anyone but him'...
But those games, and the 2002 tourney in SLC, were some DAMN good hockey games.
(Edited for the correct year in SLC)
February 8th, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^
A) I was very young, but I remember the miracle on ice.
B) Watching Greg Louganis dive was great.
C) The Mahre brothers skiing
D) Steve Fraser winning gold in greco
E) Rulon Gardner leaving his shoes on the mat.
F) Eddie the Eagle!
G) watching Bonnie Blair skate.
H) The two sand volleyball champs from the US, I can't remember their names.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
Those are all good choices. Eddie the Eagle came to my mind as well, but I limited myself to 3, and he was much more of a novelty.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
The chunky guy from Wyoming taking down the Russian all-everything was a real Rocky story.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
I was going to say Rulon Gardner. That match was incredible.
While traveling in Russia, I once asked one of them what he thought about the '80 game. He responded, "If we built a museaum everytime we beat the USA in hockey, Russia would be a country full of museaums."
February 8th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
Jason Lesak chasing down Alain Bernard in the last 50 meters to deliver the US the gold in the 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Games. One of greatest athletic performances ever.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^
I was working at the library watching this relay, I think it had to have been live. It was hard keeping quiet behind the counter with a room full of people silently working. Still one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in sports.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:35 PM ^
That must've been crazy. Was anyone else watching?
Not exactly the same, but I remember having to go through similar conniptions working on a hospital floor when Landon Donovan scored the winning goal to advance the US to the round of 16 in the world cup.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
Just me on my laptop.
Right around that time, one of the major golf tournments (the British Open?) went to that playoff with Tom Watson, and it bled over into Monday morning. I was watching it on my laptop when my boss came up behind me. I thought I was in trouble, but she wanted to watch, too. Score.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
I was in my family room watching with my then fiance (now wife) screaming at the TV, urging Lezak on. So funny how worked up one can get watching a swimming race. People watching from the street may have just as well thought I was celebrating Michigan winning a National Championship. Amazing moment.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
My Dad and I drove to Lake Placid, from Poughkeepsie, to watch the US play Sweden in their first game. There was hardly anyone in the stands and, actually, quite a few Swedish supporters. I was sitting behind Pelle Lindbergh (RIP) when Bill Baker's slap shot, from the right point, went in with 27 seconds left. I can still see that puck hitting the twine.
The following weekend, we were staying in Saranac Lake. I was watching the US/USSR game on the local station (on tape delay no less) in the motel. During a commercial break, the screen went dark and the 3rd period score flashed up for a few seconds; US - 4, USSR - 3. I couldn't believe what I had seen. That couldn't be right, could it? The broadcast returned to the beginning of the third period but I knew that the US was ahead. I watched, with massive apprehension, as the clock ticked down to zero.
The following day, I watched Eric Heiden win the 10,000 meters in speed skating.
I still have all of my tickets stubs and newspaper clippings and memorabilia. The Olympics have been special ever since. It would be great to see "old man" Shawn White win another gold.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:56 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^
The Olympic hockey tournaments in 2002 and 2010 produced the best hockey I've ever seen. 2002 probably has a slight edge in quality of play (and there were Red Wings everywhere! That was a great hockey season) but 2010's US team was mostly made up of guys that I had followed for years, a couple from the time they were playing for the NTDP down the road from my house.
I remember Hermann Maier spectacular flyhing crash in the men's downhill in Nagano in an event he was favored to win, and then winning a couple of golds later that week anyway. I'm fond of the Phelps memories already shared here, and of Usain Bolt's wins.
The Miracle on Ice is probably the #1 "if you had a time machine" sports event on my list. I was four months old at the time.
It's going to be a fun two weeks.
February 8th, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^
I was too young for the Miracle on Ice, but my memories of the Olympics always revolve around Michael Johnson in the '96 games in Atlanta and those golden shoes of his. Why I can't say, but that was my first exposure to the Olympics.
And then frickin' Sidney Crosby doing what he does and crushing the hopes and dreams of the entire country in the 2010 gold medal game.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
February 8th, 2018 at 1:11 PM ^
The Miracle on Ice. Eric Heiden winning five (5!) individual speed skating golds: 4 Oympic Records, 1 World Record, sprint and long distance. Mark Spitz winning 7 golds at Munich, with 7 World Records. Phelps topping that and winning medals in multiple Olympics. Women's soccer winning gold 4 times after not winning the World Cup in the year prior.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^
'94 speed skating, across the board. Johann Olav Koss. Dan Jansen. Bonnie Blair. It was mesmerizing.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^
Riding to the top of the chairlift at Boyne Highlands during the 1980 gold medal game and seeing the guys in the shack keep updating the chalkboard with the score and the time remaining.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:34 PM ^
is probably the best basketball game I've ever seen. Spain legitimately hung with America's best. Also --- the game started at something like 3 AM ET, surreal watching such a great game while most of America slept.
February 8th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
Underrated cool moment from that game: Doug Collins was on color. He had spoken to the team about his experience on the US team in 1972 in Munich, when the game was stolen from them.
When they won, US players were crossing the floor to the broadcast position to shake his hand. I had a lot of respect for that.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:15 PM ^
The 2008 Olympic team --- they struck me as much more genuine than some previous versions.
Lot of pressure on that team and Coach K after the 2004 mess. But they delivered.
February 8th, 2018 at 3:59 PM ^
Kobe shhhhh-ing the crowd after the winner.