Top: The U.S. men’s hockey team scores a “Miracle on Ice” goal against the Soviet Union in the semi-finals of the 1980 winter Olympics. Bottom: Jessie Diggins captures a gold medal with Kikkan Randall in the cross-country team sprint in the 2018 winter Olympics.
Saturday, Feb. 25, 2018, I stood among thousands of cross-country skiers at the American Birkebeiner, ready to hit the 50-kilometer trail from Cable to Hayward, WI. From loudspeakers, we heard the voice of Jessie Diggins announcing the starting countdown, “ten, nine, eight….”
Diggins and Kikkan Randall had just won a gold medal in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang, South Korea. Her clear, strong voice sent a wave of excitement and encouragement among the skiers, adding to the adrenaline already at work.
We look forward to watching the 2026 Olympics in northern Italy, for excitement and also escape from these troubled times. A similar crisis environment surrounded the 1980 Olympics. In fall 1979 Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy and held hostage 66 Americans in retaliation for U.S. support of the deposed shah, and for decades of western intervention in Mideast politics and governance.
We recall the hope and exhilaration inspired in 1980 by the Miracle on Ice – underdog U.S. men’s hockey winning gold – that brought some hope and relief from the news headlines reporting the hostage crisis in Iran.
Today the conflict occurs not overseas, but in our own backyard. Americans are being held hostage, some in immigration detention centers, and all are being ‘detained’ under the cloud of an authoritarian attack on our representative democracy. We could use another miracle on, or about ICE.
Hockey sticks, not M16s
In February 1980 the cameras zoomed in on goalie Jim Craig after the final horn, draped with an American flag, gliding in a daze through the surrounding pandemonium after defeating Finland 4-2. The previous medal round game was perhaps more dramatic in defeating the Soviet Union 4-3. The Cold War was still a thing, and the Soviet Union was the bad guy. Like professionals, their players were older and more experienced than the U.S. college kids.
Digging around in old files I failed to find a copy of a newspaper editorial I had written in 1980 following the Miracle on Ice. My dim memory of it recalls a basic theme that instead of waging war, nations should compete only in the sports arena. Instead of toting AK-47s and M16s, our young men and women should use hockey sticks on a sheet of ice frozen water, or skis on snow.
Throughout the ages the connection between sport and war is well known. Many sport events originate from combat, particularly track and field. Running and jumping, shot put, javelin, and archery, fencing mimic combat. Even in cross-country skiing, biathlon combines skiing and carrying a rifle for several target-shooting stops. Several biathletes will be representing the U.S.
Learn from history
If only our present government leaders could learn from what happened in 1979-80. Messing with Iran would be very unwise. The history of its centuries as an empire rivals that of later empires, including the U.S. Following are some lines from my July 3, 2025 post, “Empire of the Mind – Cancel conflict; learn about vast history, culture, and people of Iran.”:
“Too many Americans know little or nothing about Iran and its people. You could argue that Iran’s history, culture and accomplishments over millennia far exceed that of the U.S., if you weigh everything including philosophy, religion, art, and culture – not just technology.
“The problem with Iran today is not with its people, but its government. I have great admiration and respect for the people of Iran, if not its current rulers. The same could be said about the U.S. We live among red and blue friends and neighbors, but we suffer from a rogue, far-right government, populated with too many incompetent zealots, bank-rolled by cynical and greedy billionaires, and favored by religious-right extremists. Hmmm, maybe we have more in common with Iran today than you would think.”
Brush with hockey fame
My brush with Olympic hockey fame occurred in 1981, when I had the honor of meeting Herb Brooks, who coached the 1980 U.S. team. I was helping the sports reporter at our group of suburban St. Paul newspapers cover the state high school hockey tournament. A hockey insider, the reporter was acquainted with Brooks, and he introduced us. I recall feeling honored and humbled. By then he was jaded at all the attention.
I also feel honored to have had a past business acquaintance with one of the players, Phil Verchota. A defenseman, the Duluth East High School and University of Minnesota hockey star scored key goals at Lake Placid, including a game-tying goal in the third period against Finland. He also played on the U.S. team in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, which finished in seventh place. In civilian life he became a bank officer.
Years later he was hired on at a bank in the city where I was editor at the local paper. The bank president seemed to have a knack for hiring great athletes. After he hired Verchota, I implored the bank president to look for a top cross-country skier to join his staff. I was getting into cross country skiing, and we were looking for a mentor, although at the time there wasn’t much to choose from. Prior to Diggins/Randall medaling in 2018, Bill Koch of Vermont was the only U.S. medalist in cross-country skiing going back to 1976.
Since 2018 Diggins has won 33 World Cup victories. She is scheduled to compete in six events beginning Feb. 7 with the Women’s Skiathlon, a race that combines 10k of classic skiing and 10k of freestyle, or skate skiing. As in 1980, we will strive to block out for a moment the conflict and enjoy watching the Olympics and hope to see the U.S. in a more positive light on the world stage. 2026 Winter Olympic schedule.
