The 5 Greatest Olympic Upsets of All Time

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Every two years, billions of eyes are fixed on athletes from all over the world as these athletes compete for the ultimate prize in athletics: the Olympic gold medal. These athletes are the best of the best. They have years of training, and most of them faced the pressure of international competitions previously. Many of them have been preparing for the Olympics for their entire lives. Despite the amount of mental and physical endurance the various Olympic athletes possess, they are still human. Athletes make mistakes. Olympians crack under the pressure. Favorites for the gold are the victims of unexpected injuries or accidents. Then, the world watches in amazement as an underdog wings.

The Olympics are always exciting to watch, and every two years billions of people cheer for their nation’s athletes. Individuals like Michael Phelps and Katy Ledecky blow their competition out of the water, and certain countries come to dominate an event such as the way Russia dominates figure skating. Sometimes, however, an unexpected David comes along to take down Goliath and makes Olympic history. Those sudden upsets are often the most exciting moments of the games and are remembered long after the torch is extinguished. Here are the five greatest Olympic upsets of all time.

The Miracle on Ice

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The Miracle on Ice is arguably the greatest upset in sports history. Going into the 1980 Winter Olympics in New York, the Soviet Union was by far the favored team to win the gold medal in the men’s ice hockey tournament. The U.S.S.R. had taken home the gold in five of the previous six Olympics, and no one expected these Games to be any different. Certainly no one expected the young American team to be a contender for the gold.

The 1980 Soviet team consisted of professional players with significant experience competing on the international stage. In contrast, the U.S. had only one veteran player. The rest were amateurs and college students. Despite this, the Americans managed to hold their own against the Soviets for the first two periods. In the third period, Mike Eruzione managed to score against the U.S.S.R. and put the Americans in the lead with 10 minutes remaining. The Soviets played furiously, but the young U.S. team managed to keep the veteran team from scoring. With seven seconds left, the U.S. managed to clear the zone leading to sportscaster Al Michaels’ famous call which gave the upset its name: “Do you believe in miracles?”

Emil Zatopek Wins the Marathon

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During the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Emil Zatopek became the only person to win the 5,000 meter, 10,000 meter and marathon races in the same Olympics. He also became the first person to win an Olympic event they entered on a whim.

Zatopek had already staged one upset in Helsinki when he won the 5,000 meter race. Going into the last lap, Zatopek was in fourth place. He passed Alain Mimoun of France, Herbert Schade of West Germany and Chris Chataway of Great Britain to win the gold. Shortly after his astonishing win, he decided to compete in the marathon. He arrived at the event minutes before it began and decided that his strategy to compete in his first ever marathon was simply to keep up with Jim Peters, the man who held the world record. Zatopek’s whim earned him a gold medal after he forced Peters to run a punishing pace for the first 10 miles. Zatopek simply continued to accelerate while Peters fell behind. Zatopek took home the gold and broke the Olympic record.

Japan Bests the U.S. in Softball

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Few nations have ever dominated an Olympic event the way the United States dominated softball. Going into the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the American teams had taken home the gold in softball for 22 straight Olympic Games. The world expected the U.S. softball team to continue their streak and make 2008 their 23rd Olympic win. Instead, it was Japan that took home the gold.

A softball victory in the 2008 Olympic Games meant more than just a gold medal to the competing athletes. A triumph in Beijing would, literally, mean going out on top. The 2008 Olympics were to be the last Games that featured softball as an Olympic sport. A sport had not been removed from the Olympics since 1936, but the International Olympic Committee decided that neither the 2012 Olympics nor the 2016 Olympics would feature the sport. This ruling was later overturned, and softball is now set to feature in the 2020 Summer Olympics. It remains to be seen whether Japan will manage to defend its legendary status.

The Ice Dancing Gold Goes to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean

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During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Soviet Union dominated nearly every sport that took place on ice from hockey to figure skating. The U.S.S.R.’s stranglehold on ice dancing, however, was successfully shattered at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo by British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

Torvill and Dean performed their most famous routine to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, and they were watched by over 24 million spectators in the U.K. alone. The duo’s amazing performance earned them a gold medal that most expected to go home with the Soviets. Instead, the Union Jack hung over the highest podium in Sarajevo.

Beyond their incredible Olympic win, Torvill and Dean’s Bolero routine earned them an unprecedented set of perfect 6.0’s from the judges. This incredible feat was never successfully repeated, and it remains an impossible task for ice dancers today to match after the judging system was altered in the 2000s.

The U.S. Wins the Men’s 4x100 Meter Freestyle Relay

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The men’s 4x100 meter freestyle relay was set to be a contentious race in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The French and the Americas would go head to head in Beijing, and Michael Phelps’ dream of eight gold medals depended on an American win. Phelps set a hard pace, but in the second and third legs of the relay, the French team would catch and pass their American competitors.

Alain Bernard would swim the French’s anchor leg, and he was the fastest man to ever swim the 100 meter freestyle. He went into the water with a lead of nearly a full body length, a distance that was nearly impossible to make up in only 100 meters. It was assumed that Jason Lezak, the U.S. anchor swimmer, would be defending America’s chance at the silver. Instead, the veteran Olympian managed to chase down the Frenchman in the final five meters. Lezak swam an earth shattering relay split of 46.06, easily the fastest relay split on record and put America on the highest step of the podium.