Miracle on Ice

      "Do you believe in miracles" is a famous quote said by Al Michael's an NBC television broadcaster as the American National hockey team defeated the powerhouse Russian National team. The game between the Americans and the Russians was actually a semi final round which is the round to get into the championship and everyone before that game expected the Russians to wipe the floor with the Americans. The Americans had such a weak and young team that nobody expected them to compete with the Soviets who had trained professional athletes playing for the Russian team. The Americans were players younger than 20 and some of them had only played hockey for a few years before so for the Americans to beat the Russians it was big news and a "miracle." The soviets had won 5 of the 6 last gold medals in the olympics so they were already a lock on winning it in 1980 also but the Americans had to spoil those plans. Finishing the first period tied at 2–2, and the Soviets leading 3–2 following the second, the U.S. team scored two more goals to take their first lead during the third and final period, winning the game 4–3 in a major upset. The Americans were able to keep the Soviets from scoring in the final 10 minutes of the game which was crazy since they had the best offensive players in the world at that time. 
       The olympic games were in Russia in 1980 and the United States were considering boycotting these olympics under Jimmy Carter in protest of the Soviets invading Afghanistan the year earlier. So a lot of political issues were still going on as the Cold War had ended and these two nations still hated each other and were rivals. This made the fact that the Soviets lost even worse because this just made their whole country even more mad at the United States as we once again proved that democracy and freedom is the better method of running a country. Then the Americans had to play Finland in the championship for the Gold Medal and surprisingly enough they beat that team also. Everything was going right for the Americans playing hockey in the Olympics and so much pride and joy in the United States was generated from these great athletes being world champions of a very competitive and hard fought sport.

https://www.history.com/news/the-miracle-on-ice-35-years-ago