I find it highly implausible that the USSR would sacrifice a gold medal and their reign of world dominance just to add another nation to their Olympic games.
While the Russian coach’s moves were quite suspect and pretty moronic as well, a lot of coaches have the habit of over-strategizing in big games. Tikhonov probably pulled Tretiak as punishment for giving up a soft goal with seconds left in the first.
And, Tikhonov was probably worried about goal differential when he chose not to pull the goalie at the end. Remember, in 1980 the medal round was not an elimination tournament— it was a four team round-robin playoff. Pulling the goaltender was more likely to give the U.S. a free goal, which could have hurt the USSR in case of a tiebreaker.
But, the biggest piece of evidence against this theory is actually watching the game! Anyone who watched the entire match knows the USSR certainly wasn’t playing to lose. U.S. goaltender Jim Craig had to make an awful lot of ridiculously amazing saves to keep the miracle alive.
2) Bobby Riggs threw his 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis match against Billie Jean King.
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