Sports

Top All-Time Performances At The Olympic Games

Joe Burgett - July 14, 2019

Sports

Top All-Time Performances At The Olympic Games

Joe Burgett - July 14, 2019

1980 American Men's Hockey Team — [Image via sportsacademy.us]

11. American Hockey Team-1980 Winter Games

Known as “The Miracle On Ice,” the achievement made by the American hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games has gone down in infamy. Absolutely no one expected the United States Men’s Hockey team was going to win even as much as the Bronze, much less the gold medal. While the Soviets and Canadians often populated the NHL, there were few Americans that could be considered impressive.

This is why the entire American team was made up of Amateur and Collegiate hockey players. They managed to shock the world by beating the powerhouse Soviet Union hockey team 4-3, leading announcer Bob Costas to audibly yell “do you believe in miracles?” This set up the “Miracle on Ice” name. However, this was not what won them a medal as it occurred in the semi-finals. The Americans went on to beat Finland to capture the gold medal afterward.

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Simone Biles 2016 Olympics — *[Image via news.wsiu.org]*

10. Kerri Strug & Simone Biles-1996 & 2016 Summer Games

It is hard to pick between what both Kerri Strug and Simone Biles did at their respective Olympic events. Kerri was part of the infamous Magnificent Seven squad while Simone was part of the equally amazing Final Five. Strug sadly injured her ankle on her first vault attempt in 1996, but she stuck the landing on her second attempt, helping the Americans win the Team Gold Medal. This was the first time the Americans defeated the Russian Gymnastic team in Olympic history.

20 years later, Simone Biles dominated in 2016 as the runaway leader of the Final Five. She won the gold in Vault, Floor Exercise, All-Around, and assisted in capturing the Team Gold. She also won a Bronze medal for her performance in the Balance Beam. Both women’s performances at the Olympic Games in 1996 & 2016 respectively will go down as legendary.

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Bjørn Dæhlie Olympics — *[Image via Ruediger Fessel/Bongarts/Getty Images]*

9. Bjørn Dæhlie-1992 to 1998 Winter Games

Bjørn Dæhlie, or the hardest named man in the history of sports, was the most successful cross-country skier in history. As it currently stands, the Norwegian holds the record for the most gold medals in Winter Olympics history with 8 and the most medals overall with a total of 12. He has a total of 29 medals overall in the sport, the most in history, which is likely why he’s known as the greatest in his skiing discipline.

Dæhlie dominated the Olympics from 1992 to 1998. He won a gold medal in the 10km event twice, Pursuit event twice, 50km event twice, and 4x10km relay event twice. Bjørn won a Silver medal in the 30km event twice, the Pursuit event once, and the 4x10km relay once. If not for an unfortunate skiing accident that forced him into retirement he may have added more.

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Eric Heiden Olympics — *[Image via ESPN]*

8. Eric Heiden-1980 Winter Games

American skating legend Eric Heiden may be a doctor today, but he will forever be known as the best speed skater in American history as it currently stands. While Heiden had been a relatively dominate skater en route to winning several World Championships, no one expected the level of dominance he showed at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. Eric managed to win a gold medal in the 500m, 1000m, 15000, 5000m, and 10,000m events.

He became the first person ever to win a gold medal in all five of the available speed skating events. Heiden also became the only man to win 5 gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Funny enough, Heiden alone won more gold medals than only two countries that at the 1980 Winter Games. Those countries were the Soviet Union with 10 & Germany with 9. Clear dominance by Heiden for sure!

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Kurt Angle Gold Medals — *[Image via Business Insider]*

7. Kurt Angle-1996 Summer Games

Most know Kurt Angle today for his professional wrestling career with TNA and WWE. However, before he went into scripted entertainment as a wrestler, he was a legit amateur wrestler that did the impossible. Angle was a 2-time NCAA Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and won a gold medal at the 1995 World Championships, which allowed him to compete on the 1996 American Olympics Wrestling Team as a freestyle 100kg (220lbs) wrestler.

While the Americans had won the gold at the Olympics in freestyle wrestling, the heavyweight category had only been won by the United States 4 times since the 1904 Summer Games. In fact, the Soviet Union(Russia) had been dominate in Angle’s heavyweight category. However, during the 1996 Olympic Trials, Angle sustained a severe neck injury, fracturing two of his cervical vertebrae, herniating two discs, and pulling four muscles. Kurt battled through the pain and managed to compete at the Olympics that summer where he won the gold medal for the United States.

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Vitaly Scherbo Olympics — [Image via VSSG]

6. Vitaly Scherbo-1992 Summer Games

The amazing Vitaly Scherbo is the most successful male gymnast in the history of the Olympics. While he officially competed for his homeland of Belarus during the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, Vitaly was actually part of an aligned group at the games. The Commonwealth of Independent States unified with the Soviet Union for a team during the Games. This allowed them to even increase their medal count.

Vitaly’s campaign in 1992 was legendary. He put on some of the greatest performances at the Olympic Games the world had ever seen. He won the gold medal for 6 out of 8 events he participated in. This included the Pommel Horse, Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, All-Around, and Team events. He was the only male at the time to have achieved the gold medal in all 6 main gymnastic events at one Summer Olympics.

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Mark Spitz Olympic Medals — *[Image via Sports Illustrated]*

5. Mark Spitz-1972 Summer Games

At one point in time, Mark Spitz was the most successful Olympic swimmers in history. He actually competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics and went in brashly claiming he was going to win 6 gold medals at the event. Spitz had held ten World Records at this point, but they didn’t help. He’d win 2 team gold medals in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. He also won a Silver medal in the 100-meter butterfly event.

During the 1972 Summer Olympics, he walked in believing he could take home the gold in every event he went out for. Now experienced with the Olympics, he competed in the 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, 4×200-meter freestyle relay, and 4×100-meter medley relay. He’d win gold in every event, capturing 7 gold medals. At the time, this was the most of any swimmer or athlete within one Olympics campaign.

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Final Five Olympics — *[Image via US Weekly]*

4. Final Five & Magnificent Seven-1996 & 2016 Summer Games

What the Magnificent Seven did in the 1996 Summer Olympics was legendary but what the Final Five did in 2016 was just as impressive. This led us to simply being unable to choose between the two teams. First up, the 1996 Magnificent Seven team. This team competed in a time when the Olympics were dominated by Russians, Romanians, Ukrainians, and the Chinese. In fact, every one of those nations medaled. However, America’s Magnificent Seven managed to capture 4 medals.

They were able to earn 1 silver, 1 bronze, and 2 gold medals. One gold medal was in the team all-around, the first time the Americans did this and defeated the Russians. The Final Five, however, won 9 medals in 2016. This included 1 bronze, 4 silver, and 4 gold medals. Simone Biles helped them get 3 individual gold medals, Ali Raisman helped them get 2 silver medals, and both Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian helped the Americans earn a silver medal each. With the lone bronze also belonging to Biles.

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Usain Bolt Olympics — *[Image via Anja Niedringhaus-AP Photo]*

3. Usain Bolt-2008 to 2016 Summer Games

It is clear by now that Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive and the greatest short-distance runner in Olympic history. In fact, he never lost a race he was part of for three different Summer Olympics campaigns. The Jamaican Sensation first came to prominence in the 2008 Summer Olympics where he won the 100m and 200m events, setting World Records. He followed it up in 2012 by winning the 100m and 200m events again as well as the 4x100m relay.

Bolt continued this in 2016 when he won the gold in the 100m and 200m events yet again as well as the 4x100m relay. Bolt is the only track and field athlete in history to have won 3 gold medals in the same events at three different Olympic Games. Usain also holds the World Record times in the 100m, 150m, and 200m races. Along with the Jamaican 2012 team, Bolt shares the World Record in the 4x100m relay. Three of these are also Olympic Records still standing today.

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Michael Phelps Medals — *[Image via SI.com]*

2. Michael Phelps-2008 Summer Games

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete in history and those in second are not even close to his record. He holds 28 total Olympic medals. Out of those 28 medals, 23 of them are gold. This is also a record. Phelps began his reign of swimming dominance in 2004 when he won 6 gold medals and 2 bronze. However, in 2008 he bravely claimed he was swimming in 8 events and planned to win all of them, doing one better than the then-record holder, Mark Spitz.

Phelps managed to win all 5 individual events and then had to rely on his team to help get the remaining 3. Phelps managed to win the 8 gold he wanted. He would return in 2012 to win 4 gold and 2 silver medals then returned in 2016 to win 5 gold medals and 2 silver. He is the only swimmer in the history of the Olympics to have won the gold 3 times in the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m medley, and place in every individual and relay event in 4 different Olympic campaigns.

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Team USA Olympics — *[Image via Time Magazine]*

1. The United States of America-1904 Summer Games

Sometimes, you’ll wonder which country has the best athletes, especially the nation that has the best in a particular sport at the Olympics. Then you get the United States of America at the 1904 Summer Olympics, who completely destroyed the field. The event took place in St. Louis, Missouri. With the Olympics on American soil, they felt they had to win as much as possible. They did just that.

America won a record 239 total medals in 1904. Out of those, there were 79 bronze, 82 silver, and 78 gold medals. The record still stands to this day with the closest to it being the 195 medals the Soviet Union won in a heavily boycotted 1980 Olympics in Moscow. It is likely a record that will never be broken and offered up some of the greatest performances at the Olympic Games ever.

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