Winter Olympics: from Miracle on Ice to Sidney Crosby and Japan’s Kazuyoshi Funaki, what are some of the top moments on home soil?
- Host nations’ athletes get a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform in front of their home crowds and make moments for the ages
- Chinese athletes will get this chance come February 4, and with that in mind we look back on five previous iconic moments on home soil for the Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will give Chinese athletes a once in a lifetime opportunity to win glory in front of their home fans (technically speaking not a lot of them, because of Covid-19).
The Olympics regularly generate spectacular moments, however, nothing is as special as when it happens on home soil. With that in mind, here ares five great Winter Olympic moments of the past that where athletes had career-defining moments right in their own backyards.
Miracle on Ice
At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, a bunch of ragtag American college hockey players put together an upset for the ages. In the semi-finals they beat the Soviet Union, who at that time were seen as an almost unbeatable powerhouse when it came to international ice hockey.
The US squad beat the four-time defending Olympic champions 4-3 in a barnburner of a game, and the political overtones – a Cold War reaching what many thought was a boiling point between the Americans and the Soviets – simply made this game even more memorable.
Funaki jumps into Japanese hearts and minds – Nagano 1998
Kazuyoshi Funaki was not a household name in Japan before the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, but he changed all of that with an incredible run in front of a home crowd. The ski jumper won individual gold in the hill discipline, the team large hill gold and individual silver. At Nagano he also achieved a perfect score from all five judges for his individual gold, a feat that is rarely seen in the sport.
