Ten Great Winter Olympic Moments

Plane-loads of the world’s finest athletes have settled into Vancouver. The snow is on its way too, being trucked in from Canada’s more frigid parts. All that’s left is for the torch to be lit and the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will begin. Some pundits believe that international competition bring out the worst in people. They can cite the 1994 Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal, or the 2002 figure skating snafu wherein a French judge admitted to having been coerced by higher-ups as part of a larger Franco-Russian conspiracy.

But those are mere blips on the radar. The Winter Olympics have been a steady source of humanity, humor and redemption. It’s a history dotted entirely by unexpected triumphs and magnificently sympathetic failures. Here are 10 unforgettable — and mostly redemptive — moments from the Winter Games:

10. Happy Harada’s Redemption

Lillehammer, 1994: Japan finds itself in a position to win team gold in the large hill team ski jumping event. Team anchor Masahiko “Happy” Harada, who jumped 122 meters in his first attempt, needs only to reach 105 meters in his final effort to clinch gold.  He lands at a pedestrian 97.5 meters, dropping Japan into second-place. Afterwards, Harada riffs jokingly to the media about shame and the Japanese tradition of Hari-Kari.

Nagano, 1998: In front of a Japanese audience, Harada finds himself in the exact same position. He struggles in early events and is swept up in a gust of wind during his first team jump, dropping his team from first place to fourth. Then, with hope nearly extinguished, his second jump finds Harada soaring to 137 meters — enough to tie a world-record and lead Japan to gold.

9. Eddie the Eagle

Sometimes winning hearts and minds does not require actually winning. In 1988, Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, became Britain’s first Olympic ski-jumper. His lack of prowess led to global fits of laughter. The glasses Edwards wore for near-sightedness fogged up on the slopes, blinding him. The media called him names. He finished dead last in both of his events. He even prompted a new rule changing the minimum qualification standards. But his ironic nickname and affable nature made him Eddie the Eagle star, and he remains one of the most beloved Winter Olympians ever.

8. Jamaican Bobsled Team

Calgary also hosted another set of affable athletes in 1988: Jamaica’s first bobsled team. Later fictionalized in the film, Cool Runnings, the real Jamaican team faced fund raising problems and inexperience. Despite failing to earn a medal, they earned the respect of fans and other competitors with persistence, and by showing vast improvement throughout the competition.

7. Eddie Eagan Doubles Up

In 1920, a Harvard student and AAU champion boxer named Eddie Eagan traveled to Antwerp for the Summer Olympics where he won a gold medal in the light-heavyweight division. Twelve years later, now in his mid-thirties, Eagan returned to the Olympics as a member of the gold-medal winning American bobsled team in Lake Placid. To this day, he remains the only athlete to win gold in both the Winter and Summer games.

6. Steven Bradbury Cruises to Gold

Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury was never expected to win a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. He entered his top-two quarter-final heat in the 100M event against the world’s two best skaters: American Apolo Anton Ohno and Canadian Marc Gagnon. Finishing third, he advanced when Gagnon was disqualified for obstruction. Aware of his relative lack of speed, Bradbury took on the strategy of skating behind his opponents in the semifinals and hoping for a crash that would allow him to sneak ahead. The strategy paid off: Three skaters crashed and Bradbury advanced to the finals, where the strategy paid off once again. When Ohno and four other leaders tumbled, Bradbury glided from considerately behind to an easy, and entirely unforeseen, gold medal.

5. Hermann Maier Falls, Gets Back Up

Some falls, unlike the one that cost Ohno gold in 2002, do not spell defeat. Austria’s Hermann Maier, a legend of alpine ski racing, entered the 1998 Nagano Olympics a favorite. But early on, he succumbed to a crash that was at once shocking and majestic. After tumbling head-over-heels down a slope and through layers of netting, then landing on his head, Maier rose to his feet without help. He made his own way down the mountain, before managing to take home gold medals in both giant slalom, and Super-G just days later.

4. Mr. Nkrumah-Acheampong Goes to Vancouver

For some athletes just getting to the games is a victory in itself. This year, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong (nickname: the Snow Leopard) will become Ghana’s first Winter Olympic athlete. The slalom competitor began skiing on artificial slopes in 2002, and only saw real snow for the first time five years ago.  After airplane troubles held him out of the 2006 Turin Games, Nkrumah-Acheampong is determined to make an impact in Vancouver. For Ghana, his very presence is monumental.

3. Perfection on the Ice

British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean’s Bolero routine at the 1984 Sarajevo Games remains the only Olympic ice dance to ever receive a perfect score. Torvill and Dean earned 6.0 from every judge in every category, becoming the highest scoring figure skaters ever — handily winning the gold. The pair’s opening pose (skate’s off the ice for 18 seconds to comply with time rules) became an iconic Olympic image. Watch the routine here.

2. Dan Jansen’s Delayed Gratification

The night before his first race in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, speed skater Dan Jansen spoke to his sister for the final time. Just hours before the race, he was informed that she had passed away from Leukemia. Jansen fell in both the 500M and 1000M races, leaving Calgary empty-handed. In the 1992 Albertville games, Jansen once again stumbled and went medal-less. Enter 1994, his last chance for redemption. The 500M race saw Jansen yet again lose balance, leaving him with one last chance: the 1000M race – an event he knew was not his strongest. He got off to a hot start, and at 800M was in first place on a world record pace when he stumbled briefly. But able to regain his balance, Jansen held onto first place, returning from Lillehammer with a long-sought gold medal. 1. 1980 US Hockey Gold

The Miracle on Ice goes without saying. The drama, the international stakes, the underdog magic, and the famous Al Michaels call have coalesced to form a moment greater than its time or place. Do you believe in miracles?

Photo 1 courtesy Michael Francis McCarthy via Flickr; Photo 2 courtesy Noelle Neu via Wikimedia Commons