“Always expect the unexpected” is not just a cliché when it comes to sports but an undeniableaspect of the sporting world. Time and again underdogs have come from behind and spoiled the party of the favourites much to the delight/dismay of fans and followers.
Miracle on Ice
There is a very successful movie made over this – the 1980 Olympics ice hockey finals victory ofthe US over USSR. It’s the ultimate underdog story of a bunch of college kids beating the best international team in history. The more you know about how good the Russians were and how inexperienced the Americans were the more incredible it gets.
The Sovietsat that point of time were a team of professional hockey players.They had some of the best players to ever lace up skates, not to mention the greatest goalie of all time, Vladislav Tretiak. United States team on the other hand were a bunch of college kids, most of whom had never played together before.
The NHL assembled an all-star team that got comprehensively defeated by the Soviets in an exhibition play. But in the finals, the American kids prevailed. Many believed that Jim Craig who was absolutely phenomenal the entire tournament won that team the gold. Their coach rightly said that if they played that game ten times, they would have lost nine times. Since this was right in the middle of the Cold War, it was a huge win for the Americans on and an even bigger morale boost for the whole nation.
Gold of perseverance or sheer luck
This is the story the first ever winter Olympic gold medal for the entire southern hemisphere. This also the story of Steven Bradbury lucking his way to a gold medal in the 1000m speed skating event at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
This underdog story begun when Steven Bradbury broke two vertebrae in his neck in a training accident just two years before and had his leg sliced by a skate six years before that. Despite these serious, career threatening injuries, he managed to qualify for the winter Olympics. He only managed to came third in the quarter finals where only the top twoadvance to the semis.However, the second-place guy got disqualified so he made it. In the semis he was in dead last but all his opponents fell over allowing him to take the lead and finish first, thus advancedinto the finals.
In the final race he had the exact same situation as the semis, with all his opponents falling over and allowing him to cross the line in first place. Apparently, that was his plan all along since he didn’t think he stood a chance of winning, but it is still pretty amazing that it actually worked.
