Favorite Olympic champion and favorite Olympic moment?

[begin_within]

I guess my favorite champion would be Wilma Rudolph, and my favorite moment was Franz Klammer's sensational downhill run at Innsbruck 1976.

[bbinacan]

1. 1980 US Hockey Team

Beating the Soviets and then going on to win the Gold. HBO did a good documentary on this a few years ago.

[Bluzmann57]

2. Agreed

It came at a time when the USA desperately needed a lift and they seemed like good men to boot. Not to mention that they were just a good hockey team.
As Al Michaels said, "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? YES!" One of the greatest calls in sports history as well.
Another seminal moment was Tommy Smith and John Carlos raisng their fists in the Black Power salute. It may not have been the place for it, being a sporting event and all, but they made a point.

[bbinacan]

4. Do you own the documentary?

I bought it at Amazon.

[Bluzmann57]

11. No.

But I remember it very well. And for me to remember something from that long ago, considering how things were, is amazing. I did see the Doc. on HBO. Thanks for the info. I will certainly check out Amazon for availibity and price.

[begin_within]

9. The only thing that went wrong is,

I was watching that hockey game with my college roomates, and it was very exciting - then they broke to a commercial, and the local station in Phoenix said something like "The U.S. hockey pulls off a miracle victory at the Olympics! Film at 11!" This was on the same channel the Olympics were being broadcast on. The Olympics were on tape-delay in Arizona even though they were being played in Lake Placid, NY. We all looked at each other like, "Huh? This game?" And we knew it had to be. So we enjoyed the game, but a huge portion of the excitement level had gone out of it, because we knew the winner in advance. I think after that, news stations generally stopped giving results of the Olympics before the broadcast - at least the stations that were also the ones broadcasting the Olympics did.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Klammer is a great choice. I liked U.S. hockey win, and Carlos/Smith 1968.

Way, way too many to choose from, going back to Rome 1960, including Cassius Clay, Bob Beamon, Jean-Claude Killey, Foreman's boxing gold, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jim Ryun, Olga Korbut, Mark Spitz, the original Dream Team, Al Oerter, Peggy Fleming, Katerina Witt (whew), U.S. women's soccer - there is no way to narrow this list.

Of course, on the flip side, there was always Munich 1972, Ben Johnson, Mary Decker Slaney, and everybody's favorite:

[begin_within]

12. Awww, my Tonya

Probably the greatest potential career ruined. Enormously talented athlete - the first U.S. female skater ever to land the coveted triple axel jump in competition skating. Only Midori Ito of Japan had landed one before Tonya's, and the jump is rarely landed even today by female skaters. But since that glorious 1991 season nothing ever went right for her, and in no small part due to her own very long string of very bad decisions.

[Faygo Kid]

21. I had a book of Sports Illustrated columns before she was famous. Predicted what would happen.

I got it for Christmas in the late '80s, before she was famous. There was a column in Sports Illustrated talking about her potential, but predicting that she was going down a very bad road.

It turned out to be right on. I don't know what happened to the book in my moves since then, but I never forgot that column. Might have to go to SI and see if I can find it.

[LostinVA]

25. I actually feel sorry for her now

:sigh:

Peggy Fleming is such a lady: she's always said she could have went teh way Harding did if Fleming hadn't have had such a supportive family (Fleming also grew uppoor, and the Skating parents and Officials used to scorn Fleming and her mother.).

[fishwax]

39. another on the flip side that stands out is Roy Jones Jr. at Seoul

When he pummeled Park Si-Hun, only to be robbed of the gold by a controversial decision:

[LWolf]

5. My favorite Olympian is

Demeter.

My favorite "moment" in the seasons attributed to her is in October, after a full harvest, before the onset of winter.

That's what you meant, right? ;)

I don't have any more recent Olympic favorites or moments.

[realisticphish]

6. Jesse Owens

beat the nazis, and he was a Buckeye to boot

[dsc]

7. Greg Louganis

though I share the admiration for all the ones mentioned so far as well. I remember the Hockey win, simply amazing.

[fishwax]

38. He was a great champion, and his comeback in '88 after hitting his head on the platform

is definitely a classic performance ...

[dsc]

41. I remember watching that Olympics

which was a few months after I told my parents about myself. When he came out a short time later I was so proud of him. I kind of figured he was gay when he didn't get the Wheaties box. He was, and still is, a class act and a true champ.

[fishwax]

44. so true

"He was, and still is, a class act and a true champ." :bounce:

[dsc]

47. It was so hard to find role models back then

and he was a great one. He also looked pretty damn good in his speedo.

[AlCzervik]

8. Here you go.

1980.

[undeterred]

10. Tonya Harding asking if she could start over.

And crying.

[begin_within]

13. Oh Tonya, poor Tonya

See my reply #12 which I posted just a minute ago.

[ThatsMyBarack]

15. I just remembered:

I hafta change the laces on my own skates!

[Faygo Kid]

22. Great minds think alike. See post #3.

Tonya was indeed . . . memorable.

[cobalt1999]

14. Mark Spitz

From Wikipedia: "He remains one of only a few Olympic athletes to both win a gold medal in every (individual) event he entered in a given year, and to set a new world record in each such event."

To those of us who watched him, it was something so dominating, I doubt we'll see it ever again.

[ThatsMyBarack]

16. Barcelona 1992: FOING!

That was when that Spanish archer (I forget his name!) lit the torch in the Opening Ceremonies with a bow and arrow! :D

[bbinacan]

23. That was impressive! n/t

[begin_within]

30. That was a great moment - but

if I remember correctly, the torch started up just a split-second before the arrow got there.

[ThatsMyBarack]

36. I didn't notice

[BlooInBloo]

17. That little girl with the busted ankle pulling off the vault or whatever. Grit.

[begin_within]

31. See the next post below.

[BlooInBloo]

45. I did. I replied to it. Hours ago.

[femmocrat]

18. Kerri Strug's one-footed landing off the vault; Atlanta, 1996.

And Bela Karolyi carrying her off the floor. I tried to post a picture, but got an "illegal code" message.

[BlooInBloo]

26. Let's try this...

[Blue Belle]

19. Jessie Owens getting the gold while Hitler watched...

classic.

[LostinVA]

20. Michelle Kwan skating to "Fields of Gold" and the "Hockey Miracle" of Lake Placid

Kwan is, to me, the epitome of a champion, and only skating politics kept the gold from here. Skating to "Fields of Gold" in the exhibition showcase after she failed to win that gold was so searing.

And, the Boys of 1980. I was sitting on my bed barely able to watch teh last few minutes!

[JI7]

29. how did skating politics keep gold from her ?

isn't her problem that she seems to get nervous during the olympics and messes up. but like the fields of gold performance, she can be flawless without the pressure.

i do think she is a better skater than the ones who beat her during the olympics though.

[LostinVA]

32. She can be a choker, but politics played with the gold that year

Alot of this stuff broke during the Pairs' scandal.

[begin_within]

33. I think Michelle Kwan is a better skater overall than

Tara Lipinski (Olympic champion 1998) and Sara Hughes (2002). Those two essentially won by landing more difficult jumps that Kwan didn't. But as far as the complete package, Kwan had it all. Only an injury kept her from competing in 2006 and she would certainly have been a contender there.

[LostinVA]

35. I agree -- Peggy Fleming calls Kwan the best female skater of all time

And, she's a real sportsman, too. It's no secret Lipinski and her family were in skating just for the spoils of winning, whereas Kwan is a SKATER through and through!

[Withywindle]

24. Oksana Baiul, 1994

I was, SO sick of the frakkin' Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan drama - seems to me that was the moment when Olympic coverage first really became so tediously US-celebrity-gossip-centric that it was all but unwatchable.

So here comes this absolutely exquisite orphan teenager out of nowhere and snatches the gold. Deservedly. Oh, I cheered SO LOUD.

[pink-o]

27. My favorite Olympian is my friend's kid, Nate Schierholtz

He plays Baseball. You haven't heard of him, unless you're an SF Giant's fan. Nate was called up from AAA last year in the middle of summer to play RF, and in his 2nd or 3rd game, he drove in the winning run against the Yankees. The game had gone on for 15 innings. We were out of our chairs screaming!

Unfortunately this year, Giants management saw fit to send him back to triple A because he's the only player who wouldn't have become a free agent if bumped down. So he's been cooling his heels, and suddenly got the opportunity to play for TEAM USA in the Olympics. It was totally last minute, after someone else got injured, so we've all spent the last week trying to get info so his mom could get her VISA and a flight to Beijing. Well, it all came together, and there he is!

He sent me a pic of him with Dim Son, knowing how I would react. (see below). But even tho I'm the most political person in the world, even tho I cringe every time Idiot Resident staggers and stumbles around with the athletes, I gotta put it all aside for the Olympics. This is about the competitors, their hard work, the small countries that never get recognition doing great things. I love the spectacle of it, I love the stories behind the athletes, I love the fact that from divergent background, from far-flung roads across the world, people meet in this harmonic convergence. Proving, once again, that we are all the same, no matter what artificial barrier divides us.

The pic:

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=02ce9a4367&attid=0.1&disp=thd&view=att&th=11badc6d5c91812b

Nate's Olympic website:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=1607/bio/index.html

[MrSlayer]

28. Miracle on Ice 1980 U.S. Hockey team.

Talk about making the impossible, possible.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

34. For me in the Summer Olys it's Bob Beamon's long

jump. I remember watching it and I was blown away by it. His record stood for how many years??? Also seeing Mark Spitz win the seven golds. That was some achievement.

[npk]

37. John Candy leads Jamaican bobsled team to glory

Oh the memories.

[fishwax]

40. Rulon Gardner beating Alexander Karelin, who hadn't lost a match in 13 years

(and hadn't even been scored on for six years) for the gold medal in Heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling at Sydney.

[stranger81]

42. Mary Lou Retton sticking her perfect 10 on the vault . . . . [n/t]

[dansolo]

43. Kerri Strug's vault in the 1996 Olympics

Her vault on an injured ankle is one of the most amazing Olympic moments ever, especially since she wasn't a person who was expected to do the extraordinary. She just rose to the occasion.

[UTUSN]

46. When Olympic threads did not belong in GD?!1 n/t