Rekindling the Olympic spirit

The USSR, however, didn’t boycott the Winter Games on American soil, in the state of New York’s snow haven, some 50 miles south of the Canadian border. And it made for the most iconic moment in USA Olympic history when a group of college kids — fronted by team captain Mike Eruzione and anchored by goalkeeping great Jim Craig — donned the red, white and blue to defeat the heavily favored USSR in the hockey semifinals, a win etched in history at the “Miracle on Ice.”

History will remember that 4-3 victory from Feb. 22, 1980, and the 4-2 win over Finland two days later in the gold medal game, as the tour de force of the Lake Placid Games, as well it should. However, in real time, the spotlight during those two formative weeks of my 9-year-old youth was nary on the hockey world, not for me or anyone else in the US. No, the focus of the Winter Games before head coach Herb Brooks’ “Miracle” was fixed squarely on the shoulders of American speed skater Eric Heiden.

A week prior to the unanticipated “Miracle on Ice,” Heiden was in the midst of making Olympic history. His five gold medals were the most medals by any men’s US Winter Olympian until Apolo Anton Ohno came along 22 years later, changed the sport of speed skating forever by bringing short track to the fore, and ultimately surpassed Heiden’s haul with eight medals.

Heiden, though, still holds the USA mark for gold medals (of Ohno’s eight, two were gold), and is to this day my greatest Olympic hero, Winter or Summer. Though I will say, with the start of the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, Italian darling Francesca Lollobrigida sure gave him a run for his money.

I stayed up late Saturday into the early morning Sunday to watch the speed skating premier with the women’s 3,000 meters. A big shoutout to Peacock — a streaming service I only have to get my daily soap fix of “Days of our Lives” — whose Olympic coverage offers something of a throwback to those 1980s broadcast. You won’t see this on the network broadcasts, but the streaming service allows uninterrupted coverage of events, start to finish, capped by the medals ceremony, regardless of the gold medalist’s country of origin.

My expectations were low. I generally prefer the sprint events, though the women’s 3,000 was the only speed skating event available. And since it don’t feel like the Winter Games until I see some speed skating, well. ...

Lollobrigida came out of nowhere, in the eighth of 10 finals heats, to scorch a time of 3 minutes, 54.28 seconds, a new Olympic record. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely paying attention when her race started, as I was taking advantage of the late hours to knock out some local sports content for the Monday edition. I was certainly paying attention to her dynamic last couple laps, though.

Talk about inspiration.

When I was 9, Eric Heiden inspired a short-lived Olympic dream for me. Even though I wasn’t an athletically gifted kid (like I always tell people, there’s a reason I became a sports writer) coming off the 1980 Winter Games had me wanting to be the next Eric Heiden. That dream culminated in two ice skating lessons at the Long Barn Ice Skating Arena. The first lesson was all swinging arms in that cool speed-skating metronome style. I didn’t apply it to skating until the second lesson, and that’s when the dream ended, quickly, as I accelerated way too fast into the first turn, barreled into the wall, and, well, that was that.

If there’s a magic to the Olympics, though, it was rekindled in me in the Sunday a.m. hours as Lollobrigida, in front of her home Italian crowd at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, with her husband Matteo Angeletti and their 2-year-old son Tommaso looking on. It was one of those snow-globe moments unique to the Winter Games. And while I won’t be donning the skates again any time soon, it still ignited my Olympic spirit as though I was witnessing Eric Heiden all over again.