Olympic Games: The Biggest Upsets in Its History

Is there anything quite like a stunning upset at the Olympics?

It is because of the Olympics that many of us do, in fact, believe in miracles, or remember that an ankle injury isn't forever, but a gold medal is.

It is because of the Olympics that we are reminded a man so formidable and imposing that he was even born gigantic—15 pounds!—can be defeated, if just for one day.

And it is because of the Olympics that we sometimes find ourselves lamenting a Dream Team that is only a few disappointing games away from necessitating a Redeem Team—there are two sides to every upset, after all.

These are the biggest upsets in Olympic history.

15. Evan Lysacek Wins Gold

We know what Brian Boitano would do. But what would Evan Lysacek do?

Oh, just pull off an upset and win gold in 2010, that's all. From NBC:

"

When the guy standing next to him is skating, the medals ceremony usually has a different soundtrack.

Lysacek became the first U.S. man to win the Olympic gold medal since Brian Boitano in 1988, shocking everyone—including himself—by upsetting defending champion Evgeni Plushenko on Thursday night. Plushenko, retired the past three years, returned with the sole purpose of making a little history of his own with a second straight gold medal.

"

I'm still waiting for Evan Lysacek's song on South Park, you guys.

14. Alina Dumitru Takes Home Gold in Judo

Wait—did the title really say judo?

Yup, it sure did.

When Romanian judo athlete Alina Dumitru defeated Ryoko Tani of Japan, it came as a shock to many—Tani was undefeated in major international competitions for 12 straight years.

I'd call that an upset.

13. Great Britain Defeats Canada in Hockey, 2-1 (1936)

Here's the skinny on this: Great Britain upsetting Canada was shocking, and they did so in the second round. The results of the second round were carried through to the next round, and the Brits ended up winning gold without having to face Canada in a rematch in the final round; many of the British players actually lived in Canada.

So there you have it.

Photo (and more information on the British team) from http://studentfiles.org.uk/david_leachman/index.html

12. Tara Lipinski Upsets Michelle Kwan in 1998

Michelle Kwan was supposed take home gold. She was the favorite, to the point that some suspected the judges already assumed her victory. From The Washington Post:

"

The evening also negated speculation throughout the week that Kwan, considered the consummate artist on ice, had the gold medal sewn up with the nine-judge panel regardless of her performance tonight.

In fact, Kwan skated brilliantly and Lipinski skated better—even Kwan and her coach, Frank Carroll, did not argue that. All agreed that Lipinski received the gold medal on merit.

"

Kwan would again fall short of expectations in 2002, this time earning the bronze.

11. Czechoslovakia's Emil Zatopek Wins the Men's Marathon in 1952

From Olympic.org:

"

He won the 10,000m in convincing style and claimed the 5,000m with a brilliant sprint finish. But Zátopek was not finished. He entered the marathon even though he had never run one before and won by two-and-a-half minutes.

"

No other runner has ever won all three events in the same Olympics. And it is doubtful that another Olympian has decided, on a whim, to enter an event they had never attempted before and win it.

Remarkable.

10. The Magnificent Seven

We remember Kerri Strug's remarkable, gutsy, heroic, inspiring vault (it would turn out the team didn't actually need to take home the gold) in the 1996 Atlanta Games. But it's important to remember that the American team did something they had never done in its history—win gold. From The New York Times:

"

They did it by defeating Russia, the nation that best represents the Soviet legacy of dominance in this sport, and by defeating the Romanians, the two-time defending world champions who, despite injuries, still had their top four gymnasts in Atlanta.

"The U.S. is no longer a follower in world gymnastics, we are a leader," said [Mary Lou] Retton, who was in the stands tonight.

Until tonight, the American women never had won a team gold in world or Olympic competition.

"

Magnificent indeed.

9. U.S. Women Beat East Germany in 4-X-100-Meter Freestyle

If you are like me and you don't know much about this one, here's a quick summary from NBC:

"

Shirley Babashoff, Wendy Bogliolo, Kim Peyton and Jill Sterkel combined to win the only gold medal for the U.S. women's swim team at the 1976 Games with a world record-setting performance in the 4x100m freestyle relay. The win was a victory over the East German machine, whose success is now attributed to the use of illegal drugs.

"

Here's a bit more on that drug-fueled machine, from The New York Times:

"

A year later, the East German women dominated the Olympic swimming in Montreal, winning 11 of a possible 13 gold medals and drowning the formidable hopes of the American star Shirley Babashoff. The East German women had not won a single gold medal at the 1972 Games in Munich, but when the Americans voiced suspicions in 1976 that the East Germans were using performance-enhancing drugs, they were dismissed by many as being poor losers.

Since the fall of the Berlin wall, however, documents and court testimony have established the existence of what was long suspected: that East Germany operated a state-sponsored system of providing performance-enhancing drugs to as many as 10,000 athletes from 1968 to 1988. For East Germany, a country of 16 million people, the illicit system gained it scores of Olympic medals, and with those medals considerable stature for an otherwise isolated Communist state.

"

8. 1972 Gold Medal Basketball Game

If you have 15 minutes, watch the video—it's telling.

The reason this counts as an upset is due to the following excerpt from ESPN Classic:

"

In a different era, the global perception of amateur American basketball was one of domination. As the 1972 Summer Olympics commenced, this notion was punctuated with the impressive fact that no American team had ever lost in men's basketball in Olympic play, winning seven gold medals dating back to 1936. All of this changed on the morning of September 10, 1972.

"

Here's a recap of the infamous final moments (Full disclosure: I wrote about the incident in this article, which the following excerpt is taken from):

To review, with the US team trailing the Soviet Union, 49-48, Doug Collins was fouled hard and awarded two foul shots. Collins drained the first, and during the second, the controversy began.

As Collins began his shooting motion, the scorer’s table horn sounded. Play wasn’t stopped, Collins made the shot, and the US took a 50-49 lead.

The Soviets, however, insisted that that they had called a timeout before Collins' second shot, and assistant coach Sergei Bashkin stormed on the court. Timeouts in Olympic rules at the time dictated that timeouts could not be called after the second free throw, and the Soviets should have been given a technical foul after Bashkin ran on the court.

The game, meanwhile, had been stopped given the disurbance after the Soviets had inbounded the ball.

The referees conferred, did not grant the timeout (though called no technical on the Soviets) and ordered the play be run again, with three seconds on the clock.

But only one second was actually put on the clock and the game ended prematurely, amid celebrations from the US players. The proper three seconds were then put on the clock, leading to a full-court pass and one of the most devastating layups in the history of American sports.

7. The Nightmare Team of 2004

This team was upset by Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina (who were also the first team to beat a US squad comprised of NBA players in 2002) in the semifinal, assuring they would not take gold in the tournament.

Instead, they would beat Lithuania in a rematch and claim the bronze. There were certainly excuses. From ESPN:

"

The results might have been different if the Americans had fielded a team of their best players, but injuries, indifference and insecurities left many of the best Americans -- including Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Jason Kidd -- back in the United States.

"In 1992, the USA had the best players ever. Here they are great players, too, but they are young and they never played internationally, so with different rules it's a whole different thing," said Ginobili, who also plays for the San Antonio Spurs. "The rest of the world is getting better and the States isn't bringing their best players."

"

6. Japan Defeats US Softball Team

If baseball was America's pastime, well, then surely we should dominate in softball too. And the US Women's Softball team did just that until the 2008 Beijing Games. From Tom Withers of the Associated Press (via USASoftball.com):

"

Losing for the first time since 2000, the U.S. softball team was denied a chance for a fourth straight gold medal Thursday, beaten 3-1 by Japan in the sport's last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years—and maybe for good.

Yukiko Ueno, Japan's remarkably resilient right-hander, shut down the Americans and handed them their first loss since Sept. 21, 2000 at the Sydney Games. The U.S. had won 22 straight since then, most of them with outrageously lopsided scores.

"

5. Billy Mills Wins Gold in 10,000 Meters

No American had ever won gold in the 10,000 meters when Billy Mills started his race in the 1964 Games.

He promptly beat his own best time by 46 seconds, set a world record with a time of 28:24.4, earned himself a gold medal and shocked the world in one of the greatest Olympic upsets ever.

No American has won gold in the 10,000 meters since.

4. Sweden Defeats USA in Women's Hocky

So how big of a deal was it when the Swedish ladies upset the American ladies in 2006?

Oh, it was a huge deal. From Madison.com:

"

It was the biggest upset in the history of women's international hockey.

For the first time at a major competition, the United States lost to a team other than Canada, when Sweden defeated the Americans 3-2 in a shootout in the semifinals of the 2006 Olympic tournament in Turin, Italy.

"

Sweden would lose to Canada, taking home the silver. The United States would end up with the bronze.

3. Belarus Beats Sweden

Here's why this upset was so shocking, from ESPN:

"

In a stunning game reminiscent of the United States' "Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union in 1980, Belarus won despite being outscored 16-2 in its previous two games and being a 10-million-to-1 shot to win the gold medal.

The only comparable upsets in Olympic hockey history were the United States' 4-3 victory over the Soviets in 1980 and Great Britain's 2-1 win over Canada in 1936.

"I don't understand how we could lose against this team," Swedish captain Mats Sundin said.

As the game ended, the stunned Swedes—easily the best team in the Olympics until now, with a 3-0 record and impressive wins over Canada and the Czech Republic—stood silently as the Belarusian players swarmed Mezin, who stopped 44 shots.

"

The loss eliminated Sweden from the tournament. Belarus would finish fourth.

2. Rulon Gardner Shocks the World

Part two can be seen here.

I think it is important to restate Bob Costas' introduction to Alexander Karelin before he would face Rulon Gardner for the gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Games:

"

The overwhelming favorite is the guy you just saw, Russian Alexander Karelin. These are the numbers. Olympic gold medals: Three. World titles: Nine. Career losses in international competition: Zero, since debuting in 1987. But those don't tell a ruble's worth of this story. Karelin weighed 15 pounds upon birth. And imposing has been his middle name ever since. He comes to the land down under from the forbidding and vast Russian region of Siberia, perhaps the most feared athlete in Olympic history.

"

And Rulon Gardner was making his Olympic debut. To call Gardner's victory shocking would be an understatement as large as Karelin's legend coming into the match.

1. Miracle on Ice

If you are one of the few people who doesn't know what took place in the 1980 Olympics, here's some required reading and viewing.

But in a nutshell, an American team comprised of college players upset a powerhouse Soviet team that had compiled a 5-3-1 record against NHL teams earlier that year, defeated the NHL All-Stars 6-0 in 1979 and beat the US National team 10-3 earlier that year.

So when the American team defeated the Soviets in the Olympics, 4-3, it was a shock. It was not the gold medal game, however; the US would earn that when they defeated Finland in their next game, 4-2.

My name is Timothy Rapp, and I put the "grrrr" in Swagger.