For every Sportsphile out there in the world….the Closing Ceremony telecast for any Olympic Games is a bit of a sad day….cuz the Olympics are over….and the Olympic fans won’t get to view another for four years…..and the wait seems to be endless….but the Closing Ceremony for the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics was even more of a downer than normal….for I think the reason was that Lake Placid provided some of the all time great moments in Winter Olympic history…..I mean, there was USA Eric Heiden in speed skating….taking gold medals in all five (5) men’s events…..there was Soviet biathlete Alexander Tikhonov…who won his fifth and final Olympic gold medal….and then there were the Russian Pairs Figure Skating three (3) time gold medal winners Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev….and last but definitely not least….there was the “Miracle on Ice” USA Hockey Team….who after beating the USSR….went on to defeat Finland to win the gold medal for the 1st and only time in Olympic history. When you top off all of those incredible achievements of the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics with the eloquent word merchant delivery of ABC anchorman Jim McKay….and you have an undeniably memorable video event.
