Introduction
When ABC sportscaster Al Michaels bellowed those words—“Do you believe in miracles?”—with about four seconds remaining in our game against the Soviet Union on Friday evening, February 22, 1980, he gave to the sports world a phrase for the ages. He also inspired the term “Miracle on Ice,” which in turn inspired the title of an HBO documentary, Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, and a Disney major motion picture, Miracle. The word “miracle” is attached to what the 1980 U.S. Olympic team did in February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York.
Miracles are inspiring; they give us hope, support the notion that all is possible, and are the stuff of high-level drama. What we accomplished on that sheet of ice in that village in the Adirondacks in upstate New York was all of that. But it was not a miracle—even if I believe in them. Highly improbable? Yep. Astounding? Maybe. Shocking? You could say that.
But not a miracle.
What we accomplished at Lake Placid was the result of a lot of hard work—and a lot of smart work. It was the result of exceptional and brilliant mentorship. It was the result of sublime execution and poise in competition. It was a result of one of the best demonstrations of team chemistry in sports history.
Of course, what had, and what was going on in the world at the time of our victory, greatly enhanced the chest-swell and feel-good quotient of beating the Soviets and then, two days later, clinching the gold medal with a ...
