USA Hockey Team Thrashes Nagano

On Feb. 19, 1998, that the United States Men’s Olympic hockey team was found responsible of thrashing their hotel rooms at the Olympic Athletes Village in Nagano.  The damage to the room was done just a few hours after the team was ousted from the tournament by the Czech Republic by a 4-1 score.

A few members of Team USA hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

Although the vandalism was minor (broken chairs, dented walls and doors, emptied fire extinguishers) it was a senseless and childish act by the sore loser Americans.  None of the players ever came forward and confessed and therefore no one was ever punished, however, Chris Chelios the captain of the team did write a check for $3000 out of his own pocket to cover the damages.

The 1988 Olympics also saw the Fifty-seven nations and 1,423 athletes participated in the Games, with five countries making their debut in the Winter Olympics. Super-G made its Olympic debut, while curling, freestyle skiing, short track speed skating and disabled skiing were demonstration sports. Speed skating was held in an indoor rink for the first time and the Games were extended to 16 days.

The other sports involved with the Olympic Games were Apline Skiing, Biathalon, Bobsleigh, Cross-country skiing, Figure Skating, Luge, Nordic Combined and Ski jumping.

As at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the only previous Games hosted in Canada, the host country failed to produce any gold medals.

The Soviet Union won the most medals of any country with 29 total, including the most Gold medals with 11, nine Silver medals and nine Bronze medals.

The East Germans won the second most amount of medals, with 25 total, including nine Gold medals, the most Silver medals of any country with 10 and six Bronze medals.

Switzerland rounded out the top three countries with medals earning 15 total, tallying five of each Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

The United States tied for eighth most medals with six, earning two Gold medals, one Silver medal and three Bronze medals.

Matti Nykänen won all three ski jumping events. Yvonne van Gennip won three gold medals in speed skating, setting two world records. Alberto Tomba won two gold medals in alpine skiing.

Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards and the Jamaica national bobsled team entered with little experience but gathered massive media attention, resulting in qualification rules for later Games.

“Cool Runnings” the movie starring John Candy was about the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team.

Lake Placid Winter Olympics Kick Off

On Feb. 14, 1980, the thirteenth Winter Olympic games, a multi-sport event which was celebrated from Feb. 13 through Feb. 24 in Lake Placid, New York. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932. 

The only other candidate city to bid for the Games was Vancouver-Garibaldi, British Columbia, Canada; which withdrew before the final vote.

The mascots of the Games were "Roni" and "Ronny", two raccoons. The mask-like rings on a raccoon's face recall the goggles and hats worn by many athletes in winter sports.

The sports were played at the Olympic Center (later renamed Herb Brooks Arena), Whiteface Mountain, Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run, the Olympic Ski Jumps, the Cascade Cross Country Ski Center, and the Lake Placid High School Speed Skating Oval.

The East Germans won the most medals with 23 total including nine Gold medals, seven Silver medals and seven Bronze medals.

The Soviet Union had one less medal than East Germany with 22, but had the most Gold medals with 10. They also had earned six Silver medals and six Bronze medals.

The United States finished third in total medal count with 12, earning six Gold medals, four Silver medals and two Bronze medals.

The most notable highlight of the Games involved the United States men's ice hockey team. The team was composed mostly of collegiate players and was not predicted to advance beyond group play.

They won the gold medal, defeating the heavily favored Soviet team and Finland in the medal round. The United States team's 4–3 win over the Soviet team, which came into the 1980 Games having won four consecutive Olympic gold medals, became known as the "Miracle on Ice" in the U.S. press.

The win captured the hearts of Americans during a time of Cold War tensions, even though it was the win against Finland that captured the gold medal. A film about the event, called Miracle, was released in 2004.

Other notable highlights included

Lake Placid 1980 marked the first use of artificial snow in Olympic competition.

Cyprus made their Olympic debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The People's Republic of China and Costa Rica both made their Winter Olympic debut. The Republic of China had boycotted the Games over the IOC's recognition of the PRC as "China", and its request for the Republic of China to compete as "Chinese Taipei".

Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark won both the giant slalom and the slalom.

Hanni Wenzel won the women's giant slalom and slalom, making Liechtenstein the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion.

Ulrich Wehling of East Germany and Irina Rodnina of the USSR won their respective events for the third time.

Aleksandr Tikhonov of the USSR earned his fourth straight gold medal.

Nikolay Zimyatov of the USSR earned three gold medals in cross-country skiing.

Eric Heiden of the United States won 5 gold medals in speedskating (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m), setting 4 Olympic records and 1 world record (10,000m) in the process. Heiden was the first to win 5 individual gold medals at one Winter Games.

Robin Cousins won gold for Great Britain in the men's singles figure skating.

The closing ceremonies were held indoors at the Herb Brooks Arena.

In possibly the most dramatic duel of the games, Sweden's Thomas Wassberg edged Finland's Juha Mieto in the 15 km cross-country skiing by 0.01 seconds, the closest margin of victory ever in Olympic cross-country skiing. This led the International Ski Federation (ISF) to time all events to the nearest 1/10 second in the future.

This years' Winter Olympics in Sochi are kicking off and currently the United States is trailing only Norway in medal count with 12 to their Norwegians 14. It also marked only the third time in Olympic history that the United States swept the podium in a single discipline with three Americans atop the podium on Men's skiiing slopestyle.