The Olympics are something special. Whenever the Olympics are on, people flock together and everybody follows a bit of the action, whether team sports or individual sports, track and field or otherwise, all the while using the Betfair Promo Code or similar promo codes that bookmakers online offer. The Olympics have been around for a while, since ancient times, but more recently, since 1896.
During that century and almost 30 years, the Olympics graced us with some of the most interesting and amazing moments in sports history. Here they are, in no particular order.
The US Olympic Hockey Victory in 1980
As the subtitle suggests, the US Hockey team at the 1980 Olympics did their miracle run. Given the US’s general disinterest in hockey at the time and the fact that their amateur players were not on the same levels as those from competing countries, particularly Canada and the Soviet Union, the US team managed to surprise everybody.
They beat the Soviet Union in the semifinals and took home a gold medal after beating Finland in the finals. The semis were an amazing match to see due to the US/Soviet tensions at the time, but the match itself was tight with the US team winning 4-3.
The Jamaican Bobsleigh Team
Bobsleigh is a very specific discipline in the Olympic Games that not every country can practice in reality unless they invest lots of money. With that in mind, when the Jamaican bobsleigh team qualified for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, everybody was surprised. Their performance was bad, to say the least, but the fact that they managed to train, find the right sponsors, qualify and compete in bobsleigh is a miracle in itself.
There is, of course, a movie about the topic, which is how most people found out about this incredible event.
Power and Motivation After a Loss
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, weightlifter Matthias Steiner managed to beat his own personal record by an astounding 13.6 kilograms. This record in itself is worth mentioning, because Steiner won the gold medal in 2008. Yet, he lost his wife in a car accident the previous year. Steiner is a shining example of how we can deal with loss and his performance reminded everybody of the human aspect of the athletes in the Olympics.
Usain Bolt
His name is enough to make people remember the legend that dominated the sport of sprinting. In the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Bolt shook the world when he took the World and Olympic record for the 100 and 200 meter sprint. Two gold medals and two broken records, not too bad.
Yet, he also won a third medal with Jamaica in the 4×100 meter relay race. Bolt is an amazing athlete and his records are likely to be a challenge for sprinters in the decades to come.
Derek Redmond’s Success
Not everybody’s success story is a success story. Derek Redmond managed to tear his hamstring in the 400 meter race at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. But, he didn’t stop there, as great athletes rarely do. He got up and started moving towards the finish line, with the intention of finishing the race. His father came over and supported him just up to the finish line. He then let him go, so that he could finish the race on his own.
An Out of Nowhere Medal – Mary Lou Retton
The US Olympics gymnasts were not really that favored at the 1984 Olympics. Mary Lou Retton managed to win the first Olympic gold in gymnastics for the US. To be clear, first male or female gold in gymnastics for the US.
She was only 16 at the time, but she managed to get scores which have always been dreamt of by gymnasts, perfect 10s.
These were some of the most interesting Olympic moments from the modern Olympics.
