***2026 Winter Olympics (Milano Cortina) Thread***

[NetflixAndClone]

Gold is awesome, and the first gold in 46 years is tremendous, but you really can’t compare this with 1980.

I heard the ESPN Radio guys talking “Miracle 2” and how this is just as remarkable as Lake Placid, but … those guys weren’t even alive in 1980. Those of us who were remember.

The 1980 USA team was a bunch of college kids, going up against the literal best hockey teams on the planet. The USSR squad was a team of professionals, paid to play hockey and trained to be damn good at it. A few days before the Olympics the Soviet team crushed Team USA 10-3. The Soviets scored double-digit goals in more than one game at those Olympics. Nobody thought the Americans had a shot at gold, even making the medal round was wildly optimistic.

Then put the political situation into the mix, with the Cold War and the battle between American freedom and capitalism and Soviet oppression and communism. Coming out on top in that game, in a result absolutely no one saw coming, just can’t be compared to this gold medal.

But I suppose as time fades, and the people who were there to witness 1980 fade away, the recency bias comes into play. I’m not belittling this gold medal, what a terrific achievement and exciting outcome, but it’s just unfair to consider 2026 and 1980 as even in the same category.

Yeah while i wasn't alive for 1980, I think anyone that has watched miracle or seen the new documentary on it cannot say that 2026 comes close.

While this is definitely an upset. the USA was by far the second-best team and one of the few teams that could realistically give canada a game especially after seeing them struggle in the semi finals.

The only thing this game has up on 1980, was that 1980 was a semifinal game vs USSR and not the gold medal round. This game is memorable in the sense it was a true golden goal overtime winner (3v3 is still stupid for a gold medal match though).

US development of youth hockey that this point is considered superior than Canada mostly because of programs like the US national developmental team in michigan. We are entering what is considered the golden generation for US hockey players ever since passing Canada in the amount of youth hockey players in 2011.

Might be a bit of a hot take but I think the USA would've won gold in one of the past few Olympics already if they allowed NHL players.

 

[Cyballzz]

Agreed. It would be something like the ISU club team squaring off against Canada and winning.

The 1980 team had no chance against the Red Army.....and they won

Not movie bull ****. Real deal won against overwhelming odds.

That Soviet team was a machine and they were competing with and beating NHL teams and NHL All Star teams. Hell the Soviets beat the US something like 10-3 a week before the games.

2026 Gold was best vs the best and it was awesome but to compare it to 1980 is disingenuous to what that team did.

 

[cytor]

The 1980 team story is on a whole other level. So legendary.

 

[20eyes]

Gold is awesome, and the first gold in 46 years is tremendous, but you really can’t compare this with 1980.

I heard the ESPN Radio guys talking “Miracle 2” and how this is just as remarkable as Lake Placid, but … those guys weren’t even alive in 1980. Those of us who were remember.

The 1980 USA team was a bunch of college kids, going up against the literal best hockey teams on the planet. The USSR squad was a team of professionals, paid to play hockey and trained to be damn good at it. A few days before the Olympics the Soviet team crushed Team USA 10-3. The Soviets scored double-digit goals in more than one game at those Olympics. Nobody thought the Americans had a shot at gold, even making the medal round was wildly optimistic.

Then put the political situation into the mix, with the Cold War and the battle between American freedom and capitalism and Soviet oppression and communism. Coming out on top in that game, in a result absolutely no one saw coming, just can’t be compared to this gold medal.

But I suppose as time fades, and the people who were there to witness 1980 fade away, the recency bias comes into play. I’m not belittling this gold medal, what a terrific achievement and exciting outcome, but it’s just unfair to consider 2026 and 1980 as even in the same category.

Yeah, the Cold War was at a fever pitch. So much so that we would boycott the summer games in Moscow a few months later due to the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan in December of '79.

 

[20eyes]

The 1980 team story is on a whole other level. So legendary.

It would be like Iowa State beating the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl in 1993 and that is not hyperbole...

People who weren't alive then have no conception of it.

 

[houjix]

Agreed. It would be something like the ISU club team squaring off against Canada and winning.

The 1980 team had no chance against the Red Army.....and they won

Not movie bull ****. Real deal won against overwhelming odds.

Edit: and THEN they had to beat Finland in the gold medal game. No let down, baby

Yeah, this was the wildest thing about that whole story. Beating the Soviets by itself didn't win the gold. In fact, it wasn't an elimination style final bracket as they were going to play the Soviets and Finland regardless. Both of the top two teams from pool A played the other top 2 teams from pool B. The previous game against your pool mate was included in the final standings. Finland had no shot at gold and the Soviets could have still won the gold had the US lost.

They kept that medal round pool for another couple of Olympics before switching to an elimination style bracket in 1992.

 

[farm85]

 

[jcf817]

I thought they got silver medals.

 

[Clonefan94]

Brutal? Is there something about this stuffed animal I'm missing? Did only Canada get it? Is this guy surprised Canada is not happy to get a stuffed animal? I mean sure they are pissed, they just lost the Gold Medal Game. You could have handed me $1000 cash at that moment and I'd have still had a pisssed off look on my face.

 

[BCClone]

The handing out of medals and then later coming back with that thing was dumb, really dumb.

 

[BCClone]

Brutal? Is there something about this stuffed animal I'm missing? Did only Canada get it? Is this guy surprised Canada is not happy to get a stuffed animal? I mean sure they are pissed, they just lost the Gold Medal Game. You could have handed me $1000 cash at that moment and I'd have still had a pisssed off look on my face.

Every medal person got it. Not sure why, you have a medal, you don’t care about some stuffed animal.

 

[houjix]

The handing out of medals and then later coming back with that thing was dumb, really dumb.

No idea why they thought they had to do that completely separate from the medal. Just have someone follow along and hand them out right after the medal. Guess they really wanted to highlight the agony of defeat.

 

[WIBadger]

No idea why they thought they had to do that completely separate from the medal. Just have someone follow along and hand them out right after the medal. Guess they really wanted to highlight the agony of defeat.

Did they not do that for women’s hockey? That’s what they’ve been doing for the other medals

 

[Letterkenny]

Brutal? Is there something about this stuffed animal I'm missing? Did only Canada get it? Is this guy surprised Canada is not happy to get a stuffed animal? I mean sure they are pissed, they just lost the Gold Medal Game. You could have handed me $1000 cash at that moment and I'd have still had a pisssed off look on my face.

Europe and Asia seems to have an adult stuffed animal thing going on with the Labubus. I'm guessing this is a result of that. It's really weird.

 

[BCClone]

No idea why they thought they had to do that completely separate from the medal. Just have someone follow along and hand them out right after the medal. Guess they really wanted to highlight the agony of defeat.

I know. Almost like rubbing it in. The US men had the same looks and they won.

 

[Clonefan32]

Even the guy handing out the stuffed animals had a look of "this is really ******* dumb"

 

[cyphoon]

Voting took place in the 1st period of the gold medal game. He did set a scoring record (13- 2/11) but was -2 in the Gold Medal game. The MVP of this tournament was the other Connor.

Not only was he -2, but his pointless back check on the GWG, with his stick floating 3 feet in the air, may have cost them the game. He could have got to Hughes. He could have had his stick on the ice in the passing lane. He chose to do neither.

Not something you normally see from an MVP.

H

 

[cytor]

The stuffed animal thing was most certainly strange. They should have handed out edibles instead... win or lose, get baked and relax.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

That Soviet team was a machine and they were competing with and beating NHL teams and NHL All Star teams. Hell the Soviets beat the US something like 10-3 a week before the games.

2026 Gold was best vs the best and it was awesome but to compare it to 1980 is disingenuous to what that team did.

And the Soviets basically quit in the middle of the 2nd period of that exhibition game, It would have been 20-3 if they'd have wanted it to be.

People don't grasp how good that Soviet team was. They'd have won every Stanley Cup and world event for 20 years if they'd played in them. The only reason they were an 'amateur' team is because the USSR just listed them as soldiers or students and not pro players.

 

[BigJCy]