page_title: Miracle on Ice
section_title: Gold medal
hierarchical_section_title: Miracle on Ice / American aftermath / Gold medal
caption_attribution_description: English: Olympic flame during 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.From the Navy website: Salt Lake City, UT (Feb. 8, 2002) –– Members of the 1980 Gold Medal U.S. Olympic hockey team stand below the Olympic flame at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The team had the honor of lighting the cauldron to invoke the official start of the competition. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Preston Keres.
context_page_description: The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's hockey tournament. Though the Soviet Union was a four-time defending gold medalist and heavily favored, the United States upset them and won 4–3.
  The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and they were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of veteran players with significant experience in international play. By contrast, none of the young players on the United States' team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, had any National Hockey League experience, and largely came from college hockey ranks. With only four players with minimal professional experience, the United States was the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history. In the group stage, both the Soviet and U.S. teams were unbeaten; the U.S. achieved surprising results, including a 2–2 draw against Sweden, and a 7–3 upset victory over second-place favorite Czechoslovakia.
context_section_description: The United States did not win the gold medal by defeating the USSR. In 1980, the medal round was a round-robin, not a single elimination format as it is today. Under Olympic rules at the time, the group game with Sweden was counted along with the medal round games versus the Soviet Union and Finland, so it was mathematically possible for the United States to finish anywhere from first to third.
  Needing to win to secure the gold medal, Team USA came back from a 2–1 third-period deficit to defeat Finland 4–2. According to Mike Eruzione, coming into the dressing room for the second intermission, Brooks turned to his players, looked at them, and said, "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking graves." He then walked towards the locker room door, paused, looked over his shoulder, and said to them again, "Your fucking graves."
  At the time, the players ascended a podium to receive their medals and then lined up on the ice for the playing of the national anthem, as the podium was only meant to accommodate one person. Only the team captains remained on the podium for the duration. After the completion of the anthem, Eruzione motioned for his teammates to join him on the podium. Today, podiums are not used for ice hockey; the teams line up on their respective blue lines after the final game.
  The cover of the March 3, 1980, issue of Sports Illustrated was a photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier of the American players celebrating and waving an American flag; it did not feature any explanatory captions or headlines, because, as Kluetmeier put it, "It didn't need it. Everyone in America knew what happened." The U.S. team also received the magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award, and were also named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press and ABC's Wide World of Sports. In 2004, ESPN, as part of its 25th anniversary, declared the Miracle on Ice to be the top sports headline moment and game of the period 1979–2004. The victory was voted the greatest sports moment of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated.
caption: The U.S. team lit the Olympic cauldron at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
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