Oh Mylanta

Yesterday I had an e-mail exchange The Anginator, a fellow Olympic enthusiast about our favorite Olympic moments. This list is not to be confused with The Greatest Olympic Moments. Instead, it is more personal. Simply, which ones mean the most to you. In other words, which ones would you go to YouTube to watch? And seeing as how three of my moments predate me, YouTube is the only way I can go.

5. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists on the medal stand. Mexico City, 1968. Whether or not you agree with what they did, you have to agree it is one of the most poweful and provocative moments in Olympic history. Carlos and Smith now sound like a couple of grumpy old men sniping at one another. Carlos now says he let Smith win and both bicker over whose idea it was to don the gloves and raise their fists.

Interesting side note: Peter Norman, the Australian silver medalist in the same race (200 m) wore a badge in support of the Project for Human Rights and to support Smith and Carlos. Norman's nephew has made a documentary about the medal ceremony called Salute.

4. Jessie Owens wins four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Sometimes the significance of an event is bigger than the man himself that created it. Owens life post-Olympics matches any fall from grace movie. A pack-a-day smoking habit. Racing horses for money. Bankruptcy. Tax evasion. But that's not how I'll remember him.

Gold medals in the 100 m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100 in front of Hitler. Calling out FDR for not even sending a letter or giving him a phone call after the Olympics. That's how I'll remember him.

3. Billy Mills, 10,000 m, Tokyo, 1964. "LOOK AT MILLS!! LOOK AT MILLS!!" One of the biggest track upsets of all time. You could watch Running Brave or watch the footage below.



But what I would do is rent Tokyo Olympiad. A hidden gem is during the marathon footage you will see Billy Mills is running in the middle of the pack. I had no idea he had doubled in the 10k and the marathon until I saw this documentary. There are some visually stunning moments to this movie. Well worth renting.

2. US men's 4x100 freestyle relay team beat the Frenchies, Bejing, 2008. I don't normally get fired about swimming, but that come from behind victory on Sunday night was special.

1. Miracle On Ice, Lake Placid, 1980 We beat the freaking Russians! I watched five hockey games my entire childhood, growing up in Texas. All five of them were in 1980. Who didn't watch those games? During those games, my mom took me and my sister to the flea market where we bought some of those newfangled tennis shoe rollerskates.

My friends and I tore up the lenoleum in my family's knotty pine rec room acting like we were either a bunch of Eric Heidens or the US Olympic hockey team. I had these giant tinker toys. The green pieces were long enough to be a hockey stick (er, pole) and there was even a piece (a black plastic disk) that could pass as a puck. And that was how we did winter sports in South Texas.