favorite olympic moment?

[wesw]

well, the US hockey team was a biggie, but I think that Keri Scrugg sticking a perfect landing, on one foot, in the vaulting competition is the winner for me.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Franz Klammer (I think that's his name) going hell bent down the hill in the mens downhill. On the brink of disaster the whole run.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Ann Packer's gold medal in the 800m, Tokyo, 1964. She was a PE teacher at a school and had only run a handful of 800m events before, and that just to build stamina for her much favored 400m career.

[Lord Jim]

In terms of Olympic moments I remember from personal experience, I'd definitely have to with US Hockey tema victory over the Soviets...

That was back in the days when the Western nations could only send amateur athletes, while the Eastern Bloc countries sent professionals who they pretended were amateurs. (They were paid by their regimes to engage in their sports full time, as well as being furnished with numerous other perks and state supported training facilities)

There wasn't a single NHL player on that team. (Though some would later play) It was basically a bunch of college kids taking on what was considered to be the best hockey team on earth:

The Soviets had won every Winter Olympics ice hockey tournament since 1960, were well-seasoned and the majority of the players had been playing together for many years. In contrast, the Americans were a collection of college students (most from the rival schools of University of Minnesota and Boston University) with little history of playing together.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hocke ... r_Olympics

[wesw]

yeah, I loved franz klammer. he was at the end of his Olympic career when I saw remember him, but he was still electrically exciting.

[Big RR]

Not my favorite in terms of grandeur, but more in par for the course at the Seoul Olympics when the judges awarded the win against Roy Jones to a Korean boxer he had pummeled for 3 rounds. The boos of the crowd didn't stop for a long time, but Johnson remained pretty stoic.

I think that Olympics also had the US winning gold over a Korean in Tae Kwon Do, and "somehow" the people couldn't find the Star Spangled Banner tape. Yet the winner stood on the podium just as proud.

That Olympics had a number of similar situations not involving the US, so it was not anti-American feelings (at least exclusively).

For sheer grit, I have to give it to Cathy Rigby in 1968 for bringing women's gymnastics respect to (and popularity of it in) the US. Before that it was dominated by the Soviet bloc, but she began getting the US respect. Keri Strugg's sticking the landing is a gymnastic highlight as well, as were Nadya's perfect 10 scores.

And of course the US hockey team in 1988 was a highlight.

But generally, I enjoyed the Olympics (and still do) for getting to see sports I don't normally have a chance to see (although 24 hour sports cable networks has changed this). Sometimes I just enjoyed watching people who knew they had little if any chance of winning, yet who still gave it their all.

[Long Run]

[Crackpot]

Bob Costas' conjunctivitis

[oldr_n_wsr]

What was that "ski jumper" from the UK (I think)....Eddie Eagle????

[Big RR]

I remember him.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I still can't enough of that basketball game in 1972 between the USA and Russia in which the US team was blatantly cheated out of victory.



Start watching at 13.00 to get to meat

Aside: those were the days when Olympic basketball was exciting and interesting. University players and not NBA superstars. It was competitive, brave, and a wonderful opportunity for young men who may or may not make a fortune later in the NBA. It wasn't a fish-in-the-barrel international trip for overpaid professionals.

[Gob]

This;

[wesw]

blocked, gob.

yeah meade, watching the US kids go up against the men of the world was pretty special.....

[Lord Jim]

I still can't enough of that basketball game in 1972 between the USA and Russia in which the US team was blatantly cheated out of victory.

I was going to mention that one...I was only 12 when I watched that vile travesty, but it's burned permanently in my memory...I still get pissed off when I think about it...

blocked, gob.

Oh, drat the luck...

And I was so looking forward to spending four hours sitting here staring at my computer screen re-watching that...

[Gob]

I can find you another link if you like?

[Lord Jim]

That's okay...

I think I'll go check Meade's math and re-count all the fingers in the Nixon photo in the quiz thread instead...

[wesw]

106

[MajGenl.Meade]

Hey! Within the limits of experimental error!

[BoSoxGal]