OT: Five Favorite Olympic Performances?

[VAUConnFan]

In no particular order.
1. Lt Billy Mills(back when a number of world class athletes served in the military) thrilling come from behind victory in the 10,000 meters in 1964.
2. Kipchoge Keino wining the 5000 meters in 1968 starting and establishing Kenyan/east African dominance in the distance races.
3. The 1976 Olympic boxing team(Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, Ray Leonard, Howard Davis, Leo Randolph). the 1976 Olympics also featured outstanding Cuban heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson
4. Usain Bolt's 100 and 200 meter sweep in three different Olympics.
5. Simone Manuel's victory in the 100 meter freestyle in 2106. I do not have the words, but it was huge.
Honorable mention and, possibly, my favorite Olympic moment - Derek Redmond's last place finish in the 1992 400 meters that he was favored to win.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The first Olympics I remember well is Mexico City in 1968. Here are my favorite performances. Now, of course, some of this is taste for which sports a person likes, athletes they like, etc. For many years, track and field was my favorite Olympic sport. Hence the preponderance of track and field athletes below.

1. Bob Beamon, long jump, 1968. Need I say anything?
2. Bill Toomey, decathlon, 1968: his long jump in the decathlon would have placed him 4th in the long jump competition. (The decathlon is my favorite track and field event.)
3. Edwin Moses, 400m IM, 1976: Moses came out of nowhere, made the team, and broke the world record in the Olympics. From 1977-87 (For ten long, long years he did not lose a race! I still cannot believe it.)
4. Jackie Joyner-Kersee, heptathlon, 1988: In her prime, JJK (formerly JJ), was unbeatable in the heptathlon. She broke her own world record in Seoul (and won the long jump gold too!). She has held the heptathlon world record for more than 30 years! (And there is no question in my mind that she competed clean, i.e., no drugs). And, she is a very, very sweet, nice person. She also played briefly in the WNBA or its predecessor, I believe.
5. Michael Johnson, 200m, 1996: After getting food poisoning two weeks before the 1992 Olympics (he was the heavy favorite in the 200 and could not really compete), his "golden shoes" run of 19.32 was wonderful. (I also have great respect for his coach, the legendary Clyde Hart, which only makes his victory that much sweeter.)
6. Michael Phelps (every race in Beijing), 2008: After winning 7 gold medals the year before in the world championships (with 7 world records, and would have had 8 but the US was disqualified in the medley relay), Michael withstood everything, including a truly great French relay team in the 4x100 free (Michael did not get much press on this race, but his opening 47.51 helped keep the US in contention), his goggles filling up with water in the 200 fly (OK, he just goes to Plan B and breaks his own world record), his famous out-touching of Cavic in the 100 fly, and his monster fly leg in the medley relay to put the US ahead for good. He brought his "A+" game to every swim, under so much pressure.

OK, I gave six, not five!

Thoughts?

Breaking the world record by 6% and having it stand for 20+ years is very impressive.

“Beyond the limit of the measuring instrument”—yikes!!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Edwin Moses’s claim to fame wasn’t necessarily any particular event. It was his reliability and durability. He was unbeatable for a decade in an event where the slightest misstep led to disaster.

If I recall correctly, this was his secret: He took 1 fewer stride between hurdles than his competitors did.

 

[MilfordHusky]

In Tokyo in 1964, Bob Hayes’s USA team in the 4 x 100 was in about 6th place. He looked like Secretariat or an early Usain Bolt as he passed everyone and won going away. It was by far the fastest relay leg for another 20 years or more.



He also blew away the field in the 100 m.

Not too long after that, he changed the way football is played forever.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Two more:

Cathy Freeman, 400m, 2000, Sydney. She was the first Aboriginal Australian to medal in an individual event.

Eric Heiden, 1980, Lake Placid. Five events, five golds

I was in Sydney and really wanted to see Michael Johnson run. But he was running on the same night as Cathy Freeman, and tickets were impossible to get at any price. So I watched from a pub. Cathy carried the hopes of a nation and won with a strong, pressure-packed performance. She was the front page of the Sydney paper the next day. Not on the front page. She was the whole front page.

How about the great Mo Farah winning the 5,000 and 10,000 in his adopted country of England in 2012 and then repeating in Rio?