History
Fast Facts
Host City: Lake Placid, New YorkOpening date: Feb. 12, 1980
Closing date: Feb. 24, 1980
Nations: 37
Athletes: 1,072 (839 Men, 233 Women)
38 events in 8 sports
After 48 years, the Winter Olympics returned to Lake Placid, which had hosted the Games in 1932. Speed skater Eric Heiden and the U. S. hockey team made it a genuine celebration, even though Colorado voters had rejected hosting the games as a bicentennial celebration four years before.
As it turned out, Lake Placid offered the only chance for American athletes to win medals in that Olympic year. The United States and 64 other nations boycotted the summer Olympics, in Moscow, to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979.
There was a much smaller boycott of the Winter Games. The Republic of China refused to participate after the International Olympic Committee ruled it would have to compete as "Taiwan." The primary reason for the IOC's decision was that the Communist People's Republic of China objected to another country using "China" in its name.
As in 1932, Lake Placid faced a shortage of snow. Instead of trucking it in from Canada, the organizers spent $5 million making artificial snow, which didn't make Alpine skiers happy. A lot of athletes were unhappy about their accommodations in the Olympic village, and spectators complained about poorly organized transportation.
Until the buildup to the Lake Placid Games, Heiden had been better known in Europe than in his native land. "The Ballad of Eric Heiden" had become one of Norway's most popular songs in 1979. By the time the Winter Olympics were over, though, virtually every American had to know the name.
Heiden won gold medals in all five men's speed skating events, setting two world records and five Olympic records. He's the only athlete ever to win five individual golds at a single Olympics, winter or summer. (Swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in 1972, but three of them were for relay events.) Heiden's sister, Beth, won a bronze and Leah Poulos Mueller took two silvers in speed skating.
The seventh-seeded U. S. hockey team furnished even more excitement. Despite falling behind in six of their seven games, the squad won all seven, including an emotional 4-3 win over the Soviet Union in the semi-final and a 4-2 victory over Finland for the championship. The victory inspired the phrase, "Do you believe in miracles?" from television announcer Al Michaels of ABC.
Captain Mike Eruzione, who scored the winning goal against the Soviet Union, invited the entire team to join him on the podium to accept the cheers of the hometown crowd after the National Anthem had been played.
Other American medalists were Phil Mahre, silver in the men's slalom; Linda Fratianne, silver in women's figure skating; and Charles Ticknor, bronze in men's figure skating. There were two double winners in Alpine skiing, Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden and Hanni Wenzel of tiny Liechtenstein. Wenzel also won a silver medal in the downhill.
Ulrich Wehling of East Germany won the Nordic combined championship for the third straight time. Irina Rodina also won a third consecutive championship, in pairs pairs figure skating.
