So last night I went to tww free expression tunnel painting event.

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=607239&page=1

While we were painting I was walking around getting paint, cleaning up, etc. I walked into the middle of conversation where someone was saying, "You don't know what the Miracle on Ice is?" The person said, "No." Then someone else said, "I only know about it because of the Movie."

I am typing this to help some of you better understand what "The Miracle on Ice" was.

To fully understand its importance we must look back at the lead up to the greatest moment in American sports history. At the end of World War II the United States dropped two A-bombs on Japan which resulted in their surrender (duh). Lots of historians agree that not only did we drop the bombs to end the war, but we dropped it next door to Russia to show them what we could do to them. In the post WWII era we began to not see eye to eye with the Soviet Union politically. All of this eventually led to the arms race with the Soviets. There was the whole communism scare too.

What does all of this have to do with the Olympics?

Munich Olympic Summer Games 1972: From wikipedia...In the final of the men's basketball, the United States lost to the USSR, in what USA Basketball calls "the most controversial game in international basketball history".[1] Doug Collins made two free throws with three seconds left to give the USA a 50–49 lead, despite the horn going off in the middle of his second attempt. The Soviets failed to score on the ensuing possession, but the clock was stopped at 0:01 after one official heard the earlier horn and the Soviets were frantically urging time-out. The clock had to be reset to three seconds but it was showing 0:50 when play began again. Again, the Soviets failed to score, time apparently expired, and the United States began celebrating. However, after the vehement protests of FIBA secretary general R. William Jones, the referees added three seconds back to the clock due to error in re-starting the clock. Although Jones had no authority during an Olympic game, he overruled the officials' decision.[2] The Soviets scored in the final seconds, for a final margin of 51–50. A U.S. protest, filed after the match, was denied by FIBA, which voted 3–2 against the protest along Cold War lines. The U.S. team voted unanimously to refuse the silver medal, and to this day still has not accepted them. They remain in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland. U.S. team captain Kenneth Davis even has written in his will that his wife and children can never accept the silver medal.[3] The end of the USA-USSR gold medal game remains one of the most controversial events in Olympic history and has been the subject of numerous film and television specials, including HBO's documentary 0:03 Seconds from Gold.

As you know, during the 1970s our nation went through a lot of bad times because of the oil embargo, recession, Cold War, etc, and we had an unpopular president who supported the Shah of Iran. This eventually led to the Iranian hostage crisis during the Iranian revolution. The hostages were takent on November 4, 1979 and released on January 20, 1981 (those dates are important).

The Miracle on Ice The Soviet Union was the best hockey team in the world at the time. They won the Gold Medal in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. At the Lake Placid games in 1980 the Soviets were looking for their 5th straight gold medal in hockey. Like I said, everything was going wrong in America when a group of college players faced our political rivals on the ice on February 22, 1980 and we were a heavy underdog. Final Score USA 4 USSR 3. The USA went on to beat Sweden 2-1 to win the Gold Medal. People who didn't even like hockey watched because of the whole political situation and they also wanted to get the USSR back because of the basketball game in 1972.

That is why the Miracle on Ice will always be considered the greatest moment in sports history, here in America. It was such a big deal at the time that when the hostages were released, the first thing that was done for them when they arrived in America in January of 1981 was they were introduced to their new persident and then shown the video of the USA vs USSR hockey game. Some people even argue that the win over the Soviets made people proud to be an American again which helped bring us out of the recession.

1/21/2011 11:54:29 PM

tl;dr

1/21/2011 11:57:04 PM

AMERICA
FUCK YEAH

1/21/2011 11:58:19 PM

^^Well you don't have to read the whole wikipedia paragraph about the basketball game. The really short version I guess would be.

1972 Gold Medal basketball game: USSR 51 USA 50

1970s to 1980: Insert the Cold War, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and a crappy economy.

1980 Medal round hockey game: USA 4 USSR 3

Basically...FUCK YOU, YOU STUPID COMMIES! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO NOT WIN THE GOLD IN THE SPORT YOU PWNT THE WORLD IN?!?!?!

[Edited on January 22, 2011 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

1/22/2011 12:03:24 AM

Also, the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics featured some more political drama between the USA and USSR. There was a boycott of the Moscow games because of the war in Afghanistan. Then in 1984 the USSR boycotted the Los Angeles games.

You can read about it here...

1980

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Summer_Olympics_boycott

1984

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics_boycott



Long SI Article...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122084/index.htm

[Edited on January 22, 2011 at 12:57 AM. Reason : .]

1/22/2011 12:28:00 AM

You tard...the U.S. went on to play Finland and came back from a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2. In those days, Olympic hockey was a round-robin so the U.S. got gold, USSR silver, Sweden bronze, and Finland 4th. After the USSR game, the U.S. would've still finished 4th had they not beat Finland as well.

1/22/2011 7:32:36 AM

you should make a collage about it.


also, what the hell is the USSR?

1/22/2011 10:55:46 AM

Would CCCP be more familiar to you, comrade!?

1/22/2011 11:00:36 AM

no i don't know what that is either. is that kind of like CHiPs?

1/22/2011 11:05:36 AM

yeah kinda

1/22/2011 11:07:51 AM

ICUP

1/22/2011 11:09:50 AM

Quote :

"You tard...the U.S. went on to play Finland and came back from a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2. In those days, Olympic hockey was a round-robin so the U.S. got gold, USSR silver, Sweden bronze, and Finland 4th. After the USSR game, the U.S. would've still finished 4th had they not beat Finland as well."

I knew that, but I guess I made a major typo. I just worked 50 hours this week. They did have a last minute 2-2 tie with Sweden in I think their first game of the tournament after the USA had pulled the GK?


Also, the whole conversation that went on in the free expression tunnel resulted in Misha telling us the story of how she got her name. Her parents were from Germany and she had an aunt compete in karate at the 1980 Moscow summer games. Her mom made a bet with her aunt that if she won a medal she would name her baby after the Olympic mascot. Her aunt won the bronze.



Misha the bear



[Edited on January 22, 2011 at 1:54 PM. Reason : .]

1/22/2011 1:30:16 PM